One Weak Link in Every Chain
by CPegasus
Summary: A new threat has tracked Yugi-tachi down. she calls herself Korimo, and she has ways of finding out everything she needs to know to bring someone down.....(OC but NOT Mary-sue, rating mostly for suspence and violence, little of anything else)
1. It begins

The young boy's face contorted in pain as her slender fingers tightened their grip around his neck. A few beads of sweat ran down his neck. Although he was having trouble breathing, he still could; either she was inexperienced, or she didn't mean to kill him after all.  
~what happened?~ he asked himself. ~what's she got against me?~ Yugi ran through his day in his mind, looking for an answer to his questions.  
  
It had started out like any other day. Yugi woke up, as usual, ate breakfast, as usual, swatted at a fly circling his head, not too unusual, and went to school. Tea met him on the way, as usual, and they got to school right on time, as was not usual. Usually, they came stumbling in several minutes late, yet still far before Joey and Tristan.  
In another unusual turn of events, Joey and Tristan managed to get to class only about 10 minutes after the bell, making them half an hour earlier than usual.  
"Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Taylor, it's about time you joined us."  
"Ah, sorry Teach, but come on, ya gotta gimme SOME credit!" Joey strode in confidently, sitting down next to Tea and dropping his bookbag.  
"A late entry is a late entry Joseph. I trust you were able to do your homework with the extra time it took you to get here?"  
"Oh ah, sure thing!" Joey leaned over to the desk next to him. "Hey Tea-"  
"Not a chance, Wheeler." Tea picked up her homework and hugged them to her chest. "There is no way you're going to float through school on my hard work."  
Well anyway, that was the strangest part of the day. Tea and Yugi stayed after school tutoring middle-school students, while Joey and Tristan were on the boxing team. They all went home together, right when the sun was going down.  
And it was just after sunset that the really unusual part of the day began.  
A little black cat came slinking out of the alley the group was about to pass.  
"Oh, poor thing!" Tea ran forward and knelt beside the cat. "It must be homeless."  
"Just what I need, more bad luck"  
"Aw, come off it Tristan, y'can't blame Lady Luck for sidin' with ole Joey here," Joey elbowed his friend in the ribs, still happy about his victory in the boxing match.  
Out of nowhere, a dark shape came and swept the cat up. They all gasped. In the glow of the newly-risen moon, the creature was revealed to be a huge hawk, holding the cat in its claws.  
"Oh no!" Tea cried out, putting a hand to her lips. "That bird's gonna eat it!"  
It did indeed look like the hawk was about to have a nice little cat supper, but it flew to the top of a tall building and gently put the kitten down.  
"okay . . . that was strange."  
"You said it Yuge."  
The hawk suddenly swooped down, diving gracefully right at Yugi.  
"Look out Yugi!" Tea yelled, but with no need. The hawk skillfully pulled out of the dive moments before it would have crashed, and in a rush of feathers, it flew back up to the building.  
There was an inhuman rush of wind as the hawk passed, and Yugi had to cover his face with his arm. When he looked back up, the hawk had gone. Where it should have been, there was a girl who couldn't have been much older than himself, with the black cat rubbing her legs and a crow perched on her shoulder.  
The girl wore a long, low-rise skirt with a skimpy top, both dark blue. Her long black hair was tied into a high ponytail, tied with a black lily flower. Skillfully, she jumped from the tall building, and the crow transformed in front of their eyes into the huge hawk. She rid the bird to the ground, landing lightly on feet clothed in elaborate black sandals. Up close, Yugi saw she was even more beautiful in a sinister kind of way. Her fingers and toes were painted dark, poisonous purple, and her lips were blood red. Her eyes were her brightest feature, pools of amethyst sparkling with starlight.  
"Well, this must be the infamous Yugi Moto . . ."  
  
That left him where he was now, at the mercy of those poisonous nails and the viciously beautiful woman they belonged to. Joey and Tristan both ran forward, but the hawk transformed again, this time into a tiger. The boys backed away slightly, reluctant to leave their friend in danger. Tea looked on, frozen in terror, afraid for her best friend's life.  
Suddenly, Yugi felt the nails withdraw from where they had dug into his skin, and his throat opened up. He sat up gasping, and stared helplessly up at the girl. She smirked, and spoke to the tiger.  
"Poor little Yugi, not even trying to fight for his life." Her voice was musical and sarcastic. She turned looked down to where Yugi was sitting, waiting for his eyes to meet hers before she spoke. "so then physical strength is your weakness . . . well that's no fun."  
"HEY, PRINCESS!" Joey called angrily, catching the girl's attention. "Whadda ya want here? Just get lost so I won't haveta hurt you!" the boy cracked his knuckles angrily.  
The strange girl chuckled and snapped her fingers. The tiger faced Joey and grew to twice the size it had been. Joey's confidence disappeared like so much ice in a hot drink. He shivered and cowered, along with Tristan and even Tea. The girl nodded, and the tiger stalked over to her. She patted its head. "Hm, I guess I should leave then; I'm sure I'm no match for *you*." She sniggered a little, and the tiger became a horse in the blink of an eye.  
"Aw no ya don't!" Tristan called out. "You can't just run off without telling us who you are!"  
The girl chuckled again. "I'd guess your brain isn't your strong point. Well, what harm could it do? You would have found out soon enough anyway."  
"Now you're just being unfair!" Yugi had finally stood up, and he looked angrily up at her. "Now you're just toying with us! If you have something to say, just say it!  
For the first time, the girl frowned, and she closed her eyes. The friends all looked at eachother, while the horse whinnied softly and turned away. Yugi let his angry guard down, and she struck. Her eyes opened wide, reflecting the light of a thousand stars into Yugi's eyes. The boy stared, motionless as she concentrated hard, muttering something.  
"Run away little one, you know not what you're dealing with," she said calmly, and Yugi's formerly fierce face became fearful. He stood perfectly still, and gasped.  
"W-what!? I can't move!" All his friends gasped too, and turned to the girl for an explanation. She nodded with a satisfied expression, and climbed onto the horse.  
Tea, Tristan and Joey ran to their friend.  
"Yugi, what's wrong?"  
"I don't know! I don't know!" the small boy began to hyperventilate slightly, wanting only to do as he was told and run, but unable to move anything more than his face.  
The girl drove the horse over to the small group of teenagers. They all braced themselves for a fight, and she laughed melodically.  
"Who am I, you asked? You need not know. I am your enemy, that you do. Where I come from? You do not need to know. What I aim to do to you, that you most certainly should try to find out."  
A pair of black wings sprung suddenly out of the coal-colored horse's back. The girl was perfectly calm, while everyone else gasped. The horse took flight effortlessly  
Joey angrily called after her, "well what the hell are we suppposta call ya, Princess Kashmir of Italy?" instantly, Joey knew his comment had been a bad one, by the looks on Tea and Tristan's faces.  
The girl in the air chuckled. "You may call me Korimo. I prefer to be on a first-name basis with my enemies." The horse flew up high, silhouetted by the full moon, and then it was gone, with its rider in toe.  
Yugi fell to the ground, able to move again. He stared after the horse, thinking only of one thing  
~who WAS she? What does she want?~  
  
********************************** Hey people! I know I usually do these notes at the beginning of a story but that would have decreased the dramatic effect of the beginning of this particular chapter of this particular story.  
  
So, if you're reading this, then you probably have some interest in continuing to follow the story. I'm setting deadlines for myself on this one; I'll try really hard to have a chapter up every other Sunday. I can't promise that I'll make all my deadlines, but I can promise to try, and I probably will succeed.  
  
Hopefully, I've dragged you into my story by now, and I'll clear everything up later on. But not next chapter, no. you're gonna just have to stick with this if you want to learn what's been going on.  
  
So, see ya week after next with the next installment! Bai-bai now! 


	2. the day after

Well, looks like I only have one or 2 readers right now. -_- dissapointing, but I'm having enough fun with the story that it won't stop me. I already have another 2 months worth of story written and much more planned, so it'll keep on going till it's done!  
  
Anywho, enjoy!  
  
*** "But *why*?"  
"I don't know . . . I don't think I've ever seen her before yesterday . . ."  
"Yugi, there's got to be some reason she's after you. Everyone else had a reason."  
"Wow Duke, that's very reassuring." Yugi sighed. He, Tristan, Joey and Tea had just finished recounting the last night's events to Duke and Ryou. They were sitting together after class, while all the other students were leaving.  
Tea picked up her bookbag and stood. "Guys, don't you think we should get home? I mean, we can go back to the game shop and talk about it, but here with no one else . . . maybe it's not the best place to be the day after an attack."  
"Are you NUTS Tea? I'm not goin' out there now!" Joey put his head in his arms, resting them on his desk.  
"Tea's right Joey," Yugi stood up, too. "Waiting around here is no good. We won't get anything done anyway."  
"No way . . ."  
"Oh, is the puppy dog scared?" Tristan was almost instantly sorry he'd said anything, as Joey leaped up and put him in a headlock."  
"I . . . AM . . . NO . . . PUPPY . . ."  
"Then come on Wheeler, and let's get home." Tea was at the door to the classroom with Yugi, Ryou and Duke. Tristan and Joey looked at each other, then scrambled to the door so they wouldn't be left behind.  
  
The friends continued to discuss this new threat as they walked to the Kame game shop.  
"Are you sure you've never met her before? Maybe you hurt someone and she wants revenge for them."  
"Duke, I think you don't know Yugi very well if you think that . . ."  
"I've never seen her before! She just came after me out of nowhere!"  
"Yugi, calm down. We believe ya."  
"It does sound odd though," said Ryou. He looked up at the sky as he was thinking. "Why would a perfect stranger jump out and try to kill you? And more importantly, why *didn't* she?"  
"What do you mean Bakura?" Tea asked, surprised.  
"From what Yugi's told me, that girl, Korimo, was it? She could have killed all of you last night if she wanted to. But she let you live at least one more day, and allowed you a chance to organize and get help. She's giving you an opportunity to prepare for her next attack."  
"That . . . that makes perfect sense, actually," Yugi agreed. "But WHY?"  
"I think that's the least of your worries," Ryou said ominously. "If she's giving you time to prepare, I think you'd better take it, because the next attack will be worse than the first."  
All the way back to the game shop, they talked over pretty much these same points. None of them noticed that all the way, they were being followed by a little orange alley cat, who was hanging on to every word they said.  
  
***  
  
The top floor of the tallest building in Domino was a penthouse, every room connected. Only the wealthy and important were able to rent it out. Korimo may not have been important, but she had ways of getting the money she needed. The biggest room on the floor was in the middle, with no windows or any other connection to the world outside. She sat comfortably in her chair, facing a bank of monitors set up on the wall. She was curled catlike against the cushions, not at all unlike the little black cat in his own bed in the corner. The collective light from the screens flickered coldly, inconsistently illuminating her pretty features. Several of the screens were hooked up to the internet, showing Battle City profiles of Yugi and Joey, maps of Domino and articles about the Duelist Kingdom tournament that had occurred a while ago. On the biggest screen was a cat's- eye-view of the streets of Domino. A smaller screen was playing back the conversation between Yugi and his friends that had taken place a short time ago. The cat's-eye-view was slinking back to the tall building, switching to that of a sparrow as it got there.  
Korimo stood and stepped lightly out of the room, her bare feet sinking into the thick black carpet. The tapping of a sparrow's beak on the window was persistent and rhythmic. Korimo went into the kitchen and opened the window, and the little bird flew in, immediately becoming a bat and flying into the dark room. Korimo allowed a small chuckle to pass her lips, and followed the bat back into her room.  
"I suppose you saw what I did milady?" the bat flew around her head, speaking in a deep, quiet voice.  
Korimo waved a hand around the air, shooing away as she sat back down. "Of course Fukamito. The spell is still in effect."  
"I'll have you know that it is a major violation of my privacy to have you seeing whatever I do."  
Korimo swiveled her chair around, glaring icily at the bat. "good." She turned back around, half listening to Ryou's logical thoughts. "I'll have YOU know that this is just one more way I can be sure of your loyalty. You don't really think I'll just trust you to keep your word, do you?"  
"But milady, there's no reason to doubt my word. After all, I'm not a demon, now am I?"  
Korimo smiled, enjoying the chance for an intelligent exchange with her servant. "Blood is thicker than water, Fukamito. You are a demon by birth, if not one in practice. But just being kicked out of your clan doesn't change the fact that you were once part of them."  
"Fine, you win. Besides, if I weren't a demon, I couldn't do this." He became a mosquito, and buzzed directly toward Korimo's head. She closed her eyes and muttered something. She opened them again as Fukamito flew at her head, sending a wave of magic around him and freezing him where he was. The spell held for a few minutes, while Korimo rewound the scene she was watching. She didn't get much of a visual element, since Fukamito had been following the teenagers with his head near the ground, but the conversation was the important part, and the audio was perfectly intact.  
"If she's giving you time to prepare, I think you'd better take it, because the next attack will be worse than the first."  
"Hm, so we have a smart one to work with." She turned to the mosquito, which had fallen to the ground and became the orange tabby again. "What do you think, should we give them what they asked for?"  
The cat licked its paw. "I would wait a few days. Let them get nervous before you hit again."  
"Oh, that's no fun." She froze the picture on the back of Yugi's tricolor hair. "But I need time to gather information of my own."  
"I'm off to work again? Without even a glass of milk?" the tabby looked up at his master with lonely eyes.  
"Yes." Korimo replied emotionlessly. "Your job is to seek out the information I need."  
"What do you need, milady?"  
"I need their secrets." Korimo paid close attention to the tape of the school day. "But I want to do this the fun way. Find me someone who knows them inside and out, and follow them until you find their secret. Then let me take it from there." Korimo smiled devilishly, and Fukamito bowed and became a sparrow again. He flew out the open window, and Korimo closed it behind him.  
She stretched out in her chair, turning to face the cat in the corner. The black cat picked up his head, and stalked over to her, rubbing against her legs. Korimo picked him up, placing the purring kitten on her lap.  
"On the hunt again, Yume. First we stalk them, then hunt them down. Of course, there's no fun in brute force. Fukamito is already out on the hunt for information. We'll find out what makes them tick, and what will bring them down. There's one weak link in everyone's chain; all I have to do is find that link and make it bear all the weight." Korimo began to chuckle, escalating into a sinister laugh that echoed all around the huge room. 


	3. Kaiba's involvmement

At school, it was a general rule between the friends that they wouldn't talk about matters that the other children shouldn't be involved in. This was a rule not unlike the one that said students weren't allowed to show Public Displays of Affection in school, in other words one that always got broken. Consequently, they sat around at lunch talking about the recent events. It had been three days since the first attack, and Ryou especially was getting worried.  
"Knock off the worry-wart routine Bakura, maybe she's just not gonna do anything," Tristan said hopefully.  
"Not likely knuckle-head. She's probably only getting stronger." Duke stood with his arms crossed, pessimistic as usual.  
Out of pretty much nowhere, Kaiba came walking over to them, distaste showing on his face.  
"Wheeler, for some reason unfathomable to the human mind, Sensei gave me back your test instead of mine." A piece of paper fluttered down on Joey's head. "I can't imagine why. A 17% hardly sounds like me."  
"Yeah, we sorta thought that . . . we didn't think Joey got this." Duke grabbed Kaiba's test paper off Joey's desk, a test that got 110% and had a smiley face sticker next to the score.  
"YE-HA! 17% that's like a record!"  
". . ."  
"Kaiba, why do you have to be so mean! You could have just given Joey back his test quietly!" Tea was indignant at such a display of hostility.  
"oh, but where's the fun in that?"  
"Tea's right, why are you always so mean to us Kaiba? We just want to be your friends!"  
"Yugi, get it through your head. I don't like you. I've never liked you. I hate having to waste my breath talking to you. I'm going to leave now." And with that, Kaiba left.  
"Geez, Kaiba's such a jerk."  
"You'd think he owes us one for saving his brother all those times, but no. Still just arrogant and self-sufficient." Duke glared in Kaiba's direction.  
"Yeah, really. Mokuba means everything to him, you'd think we'd get a little thanks. But no, for Kaiba it's always 'me this and me that' nothing for anyone else."  
A ladybug crawling around the window suddenly took off and flew away. It flew into an alley and became an orange tabby cat. It strode back off to the penthouse, thinking that this was all too easy.  
  
***  
  
As a sparrow, Fukamito flew back into Korimo's home through the open window. He got to the middle room to find Korimo going over the footage he'd gotten at the school.  
"Good job Fukamito, he's perfect." She froze the screen on Kaiba. "His weakness is his little brother, and he's already against Yugi. I also assume that he's been involved with them before, making him just the right guy for the job."  
"What will you have me do now, milady?"  
"Find this brother of his, and become whatever you need to in order to lure him here. Make sure he gets to the back of the building, and I'll take care of it from there." Korimo grinned. Fukamito bowed his sparrow head, and went in search of Mokuba.  
  
***  
  
"Seto, I'm home," Mokuba entered his house after getting home from elementary school. "oh wait, that's right. Seto has Kendo practice today." Mokuba put down his books and changed out of his school uniform, into jeans and a t-shirt.  
The boy went back downstairs and sat to do his homework, when he heard a pathetic mewing at his backdoor. Mokuba got up and found a tiny white kitten staring up at him from the porch.  
"Oh, you poor little thing!" Mokuba bent down to the kitten's level. "Are you lost?" He reached out to try and pet it, but the kitten scampered away timidly. It went a few feet and looked back, almost like it wanted Mokuba to follow it. The boy complied. "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you," Mokuba said calmly. Every time the boy tried to get closer, the kitten moved farther away. Mokuba didn't even notice when he was led into the city, and tricked into going behind the tallest building in Domino.  
"What's the matter little guy? I'm not gonna hurt you," Mokuba repeated.  
"No, but I'm going to hurt you!" the kitten transformed before the little boy's eyes into a tiger, and leapt at him. Mokuba screamed and the tiger knocked him unconscious with one blow of his huge paw.  
Korimo stepped out of the shadows. "Really Fukamito, I think you took this a little too far. I believe I told you to leave the rest to me."  
"Sorry Milady, I was out of line."  
"Yes you were." Korimo ignored Fukamito's bows and picked up the little boy gently. She gave Fukamito a rolled-up paper. "Deliver this to Seto Kaiba and meet me at the old warehouse downtown. We've got a lot of work to do."  
  
***  
  
Fukamito entered the Kaiba mansion through the open backdoor. He stumbled around as a bird, with the message in his beak until he found Mokuba's undone homework. He put the message down at the same moment he heard Kaiba's key click in the door. He became a fly and waited on the ceiling.  
"Mokuba?" Kaiba walked into the room, worried that his brother hadn't come to meet him like he usually did. He saw Mokuba's books all spread out, and his sneakers tossed carelessly to the floor. Even before he found the note, Seto knew something was very, very wrong.  
"Seto Kaiba," he read, "I have your brother and I'm not especially kind to children . . . tell me what I want to know and he'll go free . . . come to the warehouse on 13th street at 9 o'clock tonight, or else . . ." Kaiba slammed the note on the table. "do none of the petty criminals in this whole world have ANY imagination?!" Kaiba asked through gritted teeth. Fukamito flew out the window, and to the meeting place. There was work to be done.  
  
***  
  
At 9 o'clock sharp, Kaiba stormed into the warehouse.  
"before anyone says anything, I KNOW this is an obvious trap and I HATE the fact that I was lured into it!"  
Korimo's laugh echoed through the huge room. "Don't worry, Seto Kaiba. I thought you were too smart to be caught in something too simple."  
Kaiba looked around angrily. "who are you and what did you do to my brother!?"  
Korimo stepped lightly out of the shadows. "You don't need to know my name. As for your little brother, he's just fine." Korimo snapped her fingers, and the tiger came out of the shadows, with Mokuba in his mouth. The little boy was unconscious, and there were beads of sweat on his forehead. "I hope you excuse his appearance, my servant had to put a little spell on him to keep him from escaping. He'll be fine in a few hours." The tiger placed the little boy gently on the floor.  
Kaiba gritted his teeth, but managed to calm himself down. Much as he hated to admit it, this girl had the advantage, and he knew he shouldn't try anything that would get his brother hurt. As soon as he calmed down, he realized that there were a lot more things he wanted to know about this girl before he gave her whatever it was she wanted.  
"You seem to have thought this through quite well, but I'm curious. How did you know to capture my brother? What if I hadn't come? What if I hated him and didn't care at all?"  
Korimo smirked. She loved dealing with intelligent people. "I know everything about you, Kaiba-san.  
"Seto Kaiba, not your given name. You were adopted at age 12 by Gozoboro Kaiba after defeating him, the world chess champion at the time in a match. You always have the top scores in your school, you're the editor of the school paper so that no one can print something about you behind your back, and you're the best player on the Kendo team, but not the captain, as that would force you to work with others instead of against them. You're also rather good-looking, making you a girl magnet, but you're a terrible heart-breaker because you don't care about others at all. The only person you'd care to rescue is your little brother here, and as such, I have taken him hostage. I knew that I could not count on a person like you to help me with nothing in return. Now tell me what I want to know, and you may forget this exchange ever happened."  
Kaiba stood almost in shock as he listened to this girl tell him nearly everything about himself. He composed himself and asked again. "But . . . how do you know all this?"  
"What does it matter?" Korimo enjoyed the chance to psyche her opponent out, but she was getting impatient. "Let's just say I've done my homework, shall we? It won't change anything. Just give me the information I need, and you'll both go free."  
Kaiba stood silently for a minute, thinking the situation over.  
"What do you need?"  
Korimo smirked again. "I need the downfall of Yugi Moto and his friends, and I want you to tell me what will bring them down."  
"This isn't about those damn Millennium Items again, is it? Because if it is-"  
"Seto, I can assure you it isn't. I just want a challenge."  
"Hm, I'd still tell you that Yugi is pretty much unbeatable. I've tried."  
"Perfect. I've beaten everyone in this world who taught me anything, I've surpassed everyone. I want this chance to prove that I'm stronger than anyone else."  
In spite of himself, Kaiba allowed a smile to break out of the corners of his mouth. "Where were you when I had your goal? We could have been a perfect team."  
Korimo's smirk hardened instantly, and she narrowed her eyes. The tiger placed a paw lightly on Mokuba's chest, ready to step down harder at the word from his master. "Seto, we're getting dangerously off-track. I will find Yugi's weakness with or without you, but only one of those ways will result in you getting your brother back."  
"Those kids together may have no weakness. I've seen what they can do."  
Korimo sat thoughtfully on top of a cardboard box. "Alright, then individually. Tell me about them. What are they like? You seem to know them quite well."  
Kaiba gave up stalling, and decided to give Korimo what she wanted. After all, Mokuba would be safe and if he helped lead Yugi to his demise, even better.  
"Yugi . . . He's the most important one, I guess. He doesn't deserve to be. He may be 15, but he acts like a little kid. He trusts everyone until he has a reason to distrust them, and once he distrusts someone, they'll never get back on his good side. I, unfortunately, haven't gotten there yet." Korimo cleared her throat, and Kaiba kept talking about Yugi. "I don't know how he manages to get through everything he does; he's so naïve, he'll leap without looking if he thought someone needed him."  
"Very good," Korimo interrupted. "Now move on. Who else?"  
"There's that little mutt Joey Wheeler. He's brave, but reckless. And not to bright. He's got a little sister, too. I've been around while he plays Duel Monsters, and he says she's his inspiration."  
"How touching." Korimo replied dryly. "I think I know enough. Now move on."  
"The girl in their group is Tea Gardner," continued Kaiba, who was beginning to realize what Korimo wanted. "She's a real bleeding-heart; she'd do pretty much anything if one of her friends was in danger. But she's smart too, and might not be the type to risk her life for someone else's." Korimo nodded.  
"Tristan Taylor is Joey's little friend. He's headstrong and stupid, and girl-crazy to boot. He chases pretty much anything that moves, but he's really after Joey's sister."  
"My, my, what a tangled web we weave," Korimo chuckled. "Now who else should I worry about? I saw six in their group."  
"The other two are more recent additions. Ryou Bakura is the one with white hair. He seems like a little wimp, but he's one of the smartest of them. He thinks things through, but for some reason he never seems to score even near me on the tests. He's bright, but not too bright, and he's weak of body."  
"Most elegantly stated, Seto. Then who is the one with black hair?"  
"That would be Duke Devlin. He's smart too, but rather pessimistic. He doesn't get along with them too well, since he ALSO likes Joey's little sister. Honestly, I can't believe anything that bad happened outside soap operas, but apparently it did. But he doesn't seem as serious about her. He's got a fanclub of idiot girls who follow him everywhere, and it's well- known that he loves it."  
"Very nice Seto, you may stop there. Now take your brother and leave." Kaiba ran forward and picked up his little brother while the tiger sat watchfully. Kaiba said nothing, and he walked to the exit.  
"Oh, and Seto," He said nothing, but turned around. Korimo had her eyes closed, and when she opened them, a wave of purple light flew to his and Mokuba's eyes. "You will wake up in the morning, and none of this will have ever happened." Kaiba brushed off the warning, and left the warehouse, simply relieved that nothing had happened to Mokuba, other than that he was asleep.  
  
***** 


	4. Fukamito

Ha ha, early update this time! Eh, I'm bored so I wanna see what people think of this. Please review the story; this is my first action-y fic and I really wanna know how good I am at this ^^" please tell me?  
  
***  
  
Korimo sighed a little and sat on a box of something in the warehouse.  
"Something wrong milady?" the tiger asked.  
"Nothing Fukamito, that memory spell is tricky. It takes a lot of magic; it just took a bit out of me. I could never have done it if it weren't for the full moon tonight." She stood back up and walked to the door. Fukamito became the little orange tabby again to follow her outside. "So," Korimo asked off-handedly, "why did you choose that kitten form?" She was referring to the tiny while cat that Fukamito had used to lure Mokuba.  
"He seemed like the type to pity the cat. Unlike you, milady. If I may say."  
"You may," Korimo replied, and her thoughts drifted, unusual for her. Her memory triggered by the form of that pathetic kitten, she thought back to the day she'd met her servant.  
  
It was close to midnight on a warm night. Korimo was 16, goal-less and alone, the way she wanted it. As far as she was concerned, her training in sorcery was complete; she'd surpassed the skill of her teacher, and was on her own again.  
There was a full moon that night. The crickets chirruped and frogs bellowed nearby. There was no other sound on the road besides the soft, sharp clicks of Korimo's sandals on the ground. No other sound but a pathetic mewing, silent until very, very close. Soon Korimo saw the kitten lying tangled in a clump of bushes near the road.  
"Oh, how cute," she said dryly. She walked past the bushes without even a second look. The mewing got louder. Korimo looked back over her shoulder, and continued on her way. The kitten struggled out of the bushes and began to follow her, mewing softly. Korimo looked at it in disgust.  
"Shoo. Get outta here, scat!" the cat only looked at her. "Leave!" the cat meowed again. Korimo lost her temper. "Scram!" she kicked the kitten right off the road. The cat sailed though the air, landing in a tiny crumpled heap a little way away.  
Much to her surprise, the little cat stood up, and morphed into a crow. Korimo held back a gasp as the crow took off, flew to her and bowed his head.  
"I sense your power, and I am powerless. Allow me to serve you in return for your protection."  
Korimo took a step back. "Who or what are you?"  
"My name is Fukamito. As to what I am, I'm an outlaw." The crow became a snake. "I was one of a clan of demons. We are shape-shifters, as I'm sure you have figured out. I however, was cast out."  
"I'm intrigued," Korimo was still suspicious, but the idea of a demon serving her was definitely something to make her pay attention. "Tell me more."  
The snake turned into a tabby cat and licked his paw idly. "I killed a fellow demon. There is no sympathy among my kind, but when they judged me to be a danger to them, I was out. Officially, I am no longer a demon, but I still retained some of my power. Unfortunately, I no longer have the power I need to fend for myself, and I will commit myself to servitude of a master who will protect me. Of course, humans in general are too kind for my purposes. You're the first I've met to be cruel to that pathetic cat."  
"So you were searching for one like you?"  
"Precisely." The cat bowed his head. "Allow me to serve you, and I shall do your bidding."  
"How can I be sure of your loyalty?" Korimo folded her arms. The demon stopped for a second. "You didn't think of that, of course. Alright, I think I may have use for you. But you'll have to agree to my terms."  
"Those are?"  
Korimo thought for a second. "A few spells of my own creation. One to ensure your loyalty, one to improve your usefulness. Agree to both now, or stay alone the way you are."  
He agreed.  
Korimo had always had a fondness for frills and extras. All the spells she designed required elaborate ceremonies between the sorcerer and the victim. These two spells were no exception.  
Deep in the woods by the road, there was a clearing. Korimo built a small fire and sprinkled herbs onto it so that it flashed several brilliant colors. Fukamito perched as a crow on a tree branch nearby, watching. At the signal from Korimo, he flew down and stood near the fire, opposite her. She signaled again, and he flew over the fire to where she stood, allowing her to pluck one feather from his back. He then returned to his place.  
Korimo pulled out a few of her own hairs and placed them in her hand, next to the feather. She closed her eyes and began to chant.  
"A bit of your life, a bit of mine  
Over the fire they will entwine" she cast the feather and hair over the blaze and opened her eyes, showering them with the purple glitter of her magic. The feather and hair separated, spinning in midair around each other.  
"Serve me well my new ally,  
For if you don't then you will die.  
My knowledge of it matters not  
For treachery, your soul will rot  
Will you accept? Oh please do tell  
It's your word that completes the spell." The hair and feather had been spinning faster and faster as Korimo chanted, stopping suddenly as she waited for Fukamito to do his part.  
The crow bowed his head low to the ground and resigned himself to servitude with a single word. "Yes."  
The hair and feather fused together, shining bright as the sun and returning to Fukamito's back.  
Korimo's eyes glittered as she explained the spell. "You are now and forever my servant, whether or not I'm around. If you disobey me or betray me, the magic in that feather will kill you instantly. I would suggest that you do nothing to trigger it. And yes, the magic is still there when you aren't a bird." She smirked a bit. Fukamito said nothing, and Korimo moved on to the second spell.  
With a few more herbs, the fire glowed a brilliant blue, and Korimo began chanting again.  
"The embers glow, the spell unfolds  
Beside the fire, under the moon  
Your loyalty is now assured  
And yet the time to leave is soon  
As you are, I need more from you,  
Using this spell seals the deal  
Where you will go you spy for me  
And what you see to me is real" the fire billowed out, surrounding Korimo and Fukamito. The crow fluttered his wings nervously. Korimo didn't notice, her eyes were closed again and she was muttering under her breath. Her eyes snapped open, and magic the same bright color as the flames connected the two. The sparkling wave flew to Fukamito's eyes, opening them as wide as they can go. Korimo continued to chant, and in a flash the fire went out.  
The moon went behind a cloud, and Korimo sat on a tree stump nearby with a sigh.  
"You are now officially my servant and spy. Whatever you see will me mine to see and record, as I wish. Again, disobey me and you die instantly, with or without my knowledge." She closed her eyes, basking in the moonlight as the clouds were blown away.  
"Something wrong, Korimo-sama?"  
"No, it's nothing."  
  
"Something wrong Milady?" Korimo was jerked out of her flashback by her servant.  
Korimo placed a hand on her forehead, and looked up at the moon. "It's nothing Fukamito, I must be more tired than I thought."  
"Don't worry Milady, the moonlight will restore your strength soon enough."  
She smiled dryly. "Thanks. Now let's go."  
  
The next morning, Seto Kaiba was awoken by a persistent poking to his side. He groaned, rolled over, and then heard his little brother.  
"Seto? You awake?" the little boy stood over him with big, worried eyes, poking him until he sat up.  
Kaiba rubbed one eye. "Yeah, I'm up...what is it Mokuba?"  
"Do you know what I did yesterday afternoon?"  
Kaiba was waking up for real by now. "What kind of question is that? I don't know."  
"I don't either...but my homework isn't done, and I can't remember what happened."  
Kaiba sighed, resigned to getting up an hour earlier than he would have liked. "Well don't worry about it and do your homework now, okay little brother?"  
"Okay Seto!" Mokuba smiled and ran off. 


	5. Korimo's warning

Yugi was getting jumpier every day. It had been a week since Korimo first made herself known, and Tea, Tristan, Duke and Joey were beginning to think she wouldn't come back at all. Ryou was still worried, and Yugi was visibly alarmed all the time. They didn't know anything about this girl, and she had attacked them from nowhere. But on the other hand, what could be done? They were waiting for her, whether they knew it or not.  
Yugi was at the game shop with Tristan and Joey, waiting for Tea and Ryou to show up so that they could get started studying for the next day's test. Duke had been invited, but declined the offer, preferring to be on his own. Joey and Tristan had begun to study already, but Yugi was looking warily out the window, waiting. Almost half an hour after she was scheduled to come, Tea came running up the street to the shop, breathless and scared.  
"Tea! What's wrong, where's-"  
"Sh-she got him...she got B-Bakura..." Tea was doubled over, breathing hard. "K-k-Korimo...I got here...fast as I could..."  
"Come in Tea, calm down and tell us what happened." Yugi awkwardly patted Tea on the back and led the sobbing girl to a chair. The tears ran down her face as she tried to pull herself together.  
Tristan and Joey ran over with shouts of "what's goin on" and "what happened," repeated several times. Tea calmed down and began to get the story out. She was still in shock.  
"We...we were walking here...we both stayed after school, right? So we passed by the park...I wanted to take the shortcut here so we did...and then...and then...that-that THING she's got, it was a scruffy little dog. Bakura...he went over to help it...we thought it was a stray...but then it turned into this big tiger...it slammed into his leg so he couldn't run, then dragged him away...I ran right here...the whole way I could hear him screaming and her laughing..." she broke into tears again. Joey and Tristan jumped up.  
"That's it!"  
"She's dead!"  
Then the little bell over the game shop door jingled, and they all jumped. Yugi cautiously went back to the door to see a note peeking out with his name, and a scruffy-looking dog trotting down the path. He grabbed the note and went back to where his friends were.  
"What is it Yuge?"  
"I don't know...it just came..." Yugi stared at the note in his hand.  
"Well...open it" Tristan said. They all stood quietly as Yugi's shaking hands tore the envelope open. They were all afraid to see what it said inside.  
"As I'm sure you've already heard, I've taken Bakura Ryou captive." Yugi read softly. "If you want to see him again, you may find me at the old warehouse on 13th street. Yes yes, rather cliché, but the place has a certain charm, wouldn't you say?"  
"She's mocking us..." Tristan interrupted. Everyone was still quiet, this time with a bit of shock mixed in that Tristan understood that. "She doesn't even take us seriously..."  
Yugi continued. "But I digress. Meet me there at 9 tonight, and prepare for anything. You most certainly didn't today." Yugi continued to stare at the note. There was no signature. There didn't need to be.  
"We...we're lucky it's not a school night...or my mom would never let me go anywhere tonight..." Tea said practically. Her voice was still shaking.  
"You don't mean you're giving in, Tea," Joey said decisively.  
"What else can we do?" Yugi dropped the note. "If we don't go, we put Bakura in danger. I won't let that happen. I'll...I'll go alone if I have to!"  
"You don't have to Yugi, we're here for you," Tea replied. She sat down again. "You're totally right, we all have to go, and we all will," she ended with a sharp look to Joey and Tristan, who agreed instantly.  
"But..." Tea picked the paper back up and read it over. "Prepare for anything? We have no idea what she's planning. What can we do?"  
"Whatever we have to," Yugi answered her cryptically. "We just won't know what that is until we get there."  
  
***  
  
"They're late." Korimo sat basking in the moonlight coming through one of the windows.  
"They'll be here soon enough milady." The tiger-shaped demon paced in the room he had. He was keeping a guard over the hostage.  
Bakura's hands were tied behind his back by a black ring of magic. The same rings were spaced evenly on his legs, keeping him in one place. Korimo had done nothing to prevent him from speaking or watching. He carefully observed everything that went on, but didn't say a word.  
Korimo turned to look at him. "Smart. You're waiting for me to slip up, aren't you?" Bakura said nothing. "It would be quite careless for me to give up my weakness to you. But I suppose there's no harm in a little history, now is there?  
"You know my name. I was born in a small town 18 years ago. Both my parents died when I was 13." She looked at her nails. "I killed them." Bakura's eyes widened, but he still didn't say anything. Korimo answered the question unasked. "They got in my way."  
That was when Yugi-tachi burst through the door. Korimo and Bakura both turned to face the sound created when the twin doors slammed against the walls. Fukamito, who had been watching the door from the beginning, twitched his tail.  
"Bakura!" Tea cried out, stepping forward and adopting a fighter's stance. "You let him go!"  
Korimo crossed her arms. "Come so soon? Pity, we were having quite a pleasant little chat." She kneeled next to her hostage, grabbing his chin and angling his face toward her. "Isn't that right, Bakura dear?"  
"Get offa him!" Joey yelled. "No one hurts one of our friends and gets away with it!"  
Korimo stood, dragging Bakura to his feet with her. The rings of magic allowed him to float up, while her hand helped to steady him. "Well I suppose it's good for me that he's not hurt." The magic disappeared, and Bakura fell unbalanced to the ground at her feet. Tea ran forward to help him to his feet. She looked up at Korimo, who spoke to the whole room. "This was a warning for you all. You obviously haven't been talking me as seriously as you should, by the fact that you allowed one of your own to be taken. This is your last chance; shape up or you've already lost." Korimo's figure suddenly began to glow brightly, and she disappeared in front of their eyes, along with Fukamito.  
Tea and Ryou went back over to the rest of the group. No one said anything for a little while. Then Yugi said, "Well...I guess we should get home..."  
"Yugi's right," Tristan agreed. "You okay buddy?"  
Bakura rubbed his wrist. "I'll be fine."  
"So what happened?" Joey asked.  
"Nothing really. Tea told you..."  
"In the park, yeah." Tea answered.  
"Well as soon as you were gone Tea, she cast that spell on me with the rings. They levitate, so that's how she got me over here. After that, she just waited. I didn't learn anything important, well, not really."  
"What do you mean?" Yugi still looked worried and tired.  
"Nothing we need to know to bring her down. But...she told me she killed her parents when she was 13."  
A rather shocked silence followed.  
"So that's what we're dealing with..." Yugi muttered. "Come on guys, let's get out of here." He spoke up, and the friends walked eachother back home.  
  
***  
Korimo reappeared shortly after the friends left, along with Fukamito.  
"Well, that went nicely."  
"Why did you tell him that, milady?"  
"Hm? Oh, about my parents. It makes their kind decidedly nervous to deal with one like me." With that, Korimo pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of her breast pocket, wrote a note, and handed it to her servant. "Be sure this gets where it needs to."  
"Who is it now, Milady?"  
"Duke Devlin. I've got something special planned that I'm sure he won't want to miss."  
The tiger bowed his head. "that new spell you were working on?"  
Korimo grinned. "Yes, I think he'll be just the one to test it for me." 


	6. Mind Control! Duke Devlin taken!

Okay, it's early. That's because I really like this chapter, especially the first part. So it's up now because I'm impatient. So read! And REVIEW! And shamelessly plug me! Because I REALLY need publicity ^^"""""""  
  
***  
  
The day after Yugi-tachi had confronted Korimo, Duke Devlin had just been lazy. His work was done, business at the game shop was slow, and everything else was uneventful. That is, until that evening when he heard the doorbell ring and stepped outside to see who was there. After that, things got quite eventful.  
  
Fukamito and Korimo hid just out of sight, where they could see and not be seen.  
"But Milady, he'd never come willingly, so how can we make him?"  
Korimo glared sharply at her servant. "Don't ask questions and leave it up to me, I believe I told you that. Now just watch."  
  
Duke picked up the note that was on his doorstep and read it.  
"Duke, I have watched and admired you from afar for a long time. Up till now, I have been too shy to talk to you, but now I feel I must. Please come to meet me at the park tonight after sunset. I'll be waiting." There was only a heart next to the message. Duke smiled. "Nabbed another one." He looked to his left. The sun was hovering shyly just over the horizon, not confident enough to sink. He went back inside to get a jacket and set off for the park.  
  
Korimo stood up and dusted herself off. "There, I told you I'd take care of things."  
"Ah, I see." Fukamito nodded his dog head. "Of course, play off his weakness. I should have known that earlier."  
"Yes," Korimo said distractedly. "Now come, we can't keep the boy waiting. He's expecting an admirer in a few minutes." She allowed herself an anticipant smile. "And that's just what we'll give him."  
  
***  
  
Duke stood watching the sunset, leaning against a tree in the park. He kept looking at the note, wondering if he could place the handwriting, and speculating as to who might like him.  
Korimo wore her usual outfit, but she let her hair down, fastening the black lily behind her left ear. Her black hair fell to her waist, filled with waves and soft twists. If she had been pretty before, she was beautiful now. Which was, of course, exactly what she wanted. She dusted her skirt off before walking to where Duke stood.  
"Duke? You-you really waited for me?" Korimo put a shy quiver in her voice.  
"Of course baby, I wouldn't wanna miss ya." Duke thought he was being suave. To Korimo, he was being disgusting. But she continued her charade, giving no hint of her true personality.  
"I...I wasn't sure you'd come..."  
"Well I did. What's your name sweetheart, I don't think I know ya."  
"They call me Korimo." She was slowly walking closer to him, noting with relief that the night was breaking clearly, with no clouds to obscure the rising moon.  
The name clicked in Duke's mind, and he switched gears immediately. "Wait a sec...You're the one Yugi was talking about, aren't you?" he asked defensively.  
"Please Duke," Korimo threw herself onto him, trapping him in an embrace. "Does it matter? I-"she called a flush to her cheeks, "I love you."  
Duke tried, and failed to push her off. "No way, get off. If you're Yugi's enemy, that makes you mine too."  
Korimo finally shook off her act. "Well fine, have it your way. I have my methods, and you'll willingly be mine before the night is done!"  
The waning moon rose completely over the city skyline, and Korimo began to chant. The same rings of energy that had trapped Ryou the day before now tied him to the tree. He began to panic, struggling against the magic. Korimo stepped away and stood relaxed, with her eyes closed. She raised her arms above her head, interlacing her fingers and bringing her hands down in front of her, palms facing out. Her entire figure began to glow faintly red. She muttered her newest spell quietly. It was in an old language, one spoken only by way of sorcery. Spells were always most powerful when cast in the ancient tongue.  
The red light slowly began to collect in her cupped hands as it grew stronger. Her silky hair lifted itself out and up, framing her like a lion's mane. Her sandaled feet pointed downward as she was lifted a few inches off the ground by the power of her new spell. Her ruby lips moved rhythmically as she called up her power.  
Duke had stopped struggling, and was watching with terrified fascination. The bonds holding him to the rough bark of the tree broke. Duke looked down and tried to run away, but found himself unable to. He was frozen the same way Yugi had been the first time he'd met Korimo. However, the magic she used to keep him from running was far from his biggest problem.  
The ball of light was about the size of her head now. The chant picked up speed and volume, and then her eyes snapped open. The magic shot forward from her hands and hit Duke straight on. He threw his hands before him, trying vainly to block it. For a few seconds, the light connected the two by their hands. Duke's face contorted into a scream, but no sound crossed his lips. The light absorbed itself into his body, and he fell to the ground.  
Korimo sighed lightly and picked up the lily that had fallen when her hair fanned out. "Well, that's all I wanted. You can go now, Duke."  
Duke sat where he'd fallen, staring blankly at the ground. "I...I don't want to."  
"Hm?"  
"I don't want to leave."  
"Oh really?" Korimo smiled. "What would you rather do?"  
"I want to do what you want me to do." Duke stood up. His eyes were blank, pupil-less, controlled.  
Korimo saw that look in his eyes. He was now completely under her spell. "Perfect."  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, Yugi-tachi were being watched without their knowledge by a ladybug on the windowsill. Everyone was still in shock over the last night's events. Even just the small amount of information Ryou had gotten was enough to finally throw their situation into proportion.  
Tea had always had the purest heart in the group. The new knowledge they had of Korimo hit her the hardest. "I...I just can't believe it...what kind of cruel, heartless person could kill their own parents!?" again, she began to cry at the thought.  
Ryou put an arm around her shoulder. "I know Tea...but that's not our biggest problem right now." He turned to the rest of the group. "But I think it's part of it."  
"What are you talking about Bakura?" Joey asked, leaning back into his seat on Yugi's couch.  
Ryou's expression was grim. "I mean that now we have a better idea of what we're up against. If she can kill her mother and father, than what do our lives mean to her?"  
"Pretty much nothing, huh?"  
"Right Tristan." Ryou nodded.  
Yugi sighed. "So how are we supposed to go against her?"  
"Yugi, are you nuts?" Tea had composed herself by now. "You can't fight her! You...you'll be killed!"  
"I have to, Tea." Yugi stared at the ground. "I'm the one she wants, aren't I? It seems like I'm the one she's targeting, so I have to fight her, and soon. Otherwise, everyone I care about will be at risk...the same way Bakura was...and I can't let that happen."  
"But Yugi..." Tea paused, her words caught in her throat. She closed her eyes and said them. "I...I don't want to see you hurt." She blushed a little.  
Yugi stood up and awkwardly placed his hand on her shoulder. "I don't want you to get hurt either. Or anyone else for that matter. That's why I have to go."  
"Well Yuge," Joey stood up, stretching his arms over his head. "If you're going, I'm going with ya!"  
"Me too!" Tristan jumped up next to his best friend. "No way I'm letting this dimwit get all the credit!"  
"What's going on?" everyone turned to see Serenity standing at the door, her arms full of snacks she'd gone out to get. The rest of the gang had sent her out so they could discuss Korimo without her.  
"Ah, nothin sis. Don't worry about it."  
"Joey, what is it? I heard something about people getting hurt...is everything okay?"  
Yugi decided to be honest with her. "No, not really. But you shouldn't worry about it Serenity. I know you probably want to come with us, but you'll only get yourself into trouble."  
"You can't just leave me behind!" she replied indignantly. "Besides, I wouldn't let Joey go into danger without me, he'd be hopeless!" Everyone but Joey burst out laughing at Serenity's accurate assessment of her brother's talents.  
"Well...alright Serenity," Tea said, "But if we tell you it's too dangerous, you've gotta go back, okay? We don't want anything to happen to you."  
"Yeah, ya gotta listen to us, sis." Joey ruffled Serenity's hair. "But I think you'll come in handy after all."  
Among the giggles and overall high spirits, the ladybug flew away.  
  
***  
  
Fukamito returned to Korimo's dwelling as a sparrow. Korimo was ready and waiting for him.  
"Do you know who the younger girl is?" he asked, becoming a tabby cat at her feet.  
Korimo nodded. "Serenity Wheeler, Joey's little sister. There were a few mentions of her in the Duelist Kingdom articles. Apparently, she's his inspiration. She means a lot to him." She smirked. "We'll have to pay her a visit sometime."  
"Yes, Milady." The cat began to slink away.  
"I haven't dismissed you yet," Korimo said. Fukamito turned to look at her. "I said sometime. For now, you are not to touch her. Get me Tea Gardner."  
"Tea? But milady-"  
"But what? You are here to follow my orders, and I suggest you do so." Korimo spoke with a calm, dangerous timbre. "Obviously, the girl means something to our little Yugi. And it seems to me that he means the same to her. Now, the poor girl deserves the best education she can get on these matters."  
"I'm afraid I don't understand, Milady."  
"I got my education from that goody-goody sorceress who used to teach me, and look how I turned out. We don't want Tea to go bad like I did, now do we?" she asked with amused sarcasm.  
Fukamito's cat eyes glittered with understanding. "Perhaps learning from the bad will allow her to turn out good?"  
"Precisely. Now get her to come with you and meet me at the forest outside of town. It's time for the game to begin."  
"Yes, Milady." Fukamito left the room to go and find Tea.  
Korimo looked down to see Yume nuzzling against her. She picked the cat up. "Finally Yume, my dreams will be fulfilled. If I can defeat Yugi Moto, I'll really be the strongest there is." She smiled wickedly. "I can't let my old master be right about me." The cat meowed curiously in her arms. "What did she say? Well alright Yume, I'll tell you..."  
  
A/n: yup, a flashback chapter next time. So....yeah 


	7. Korimo's Training

ACK! Omg, I'm SO sorry for the delay. Not that anyone really cares anyway, since NO ONE IS REVIEWING THIS FIC!!! *sigh* well, I'm having too much fun writing this to stop anyway, but it would be really nice to see some input. Plus, if no one reviews this chapter, I will be less tempted to keep my deadlines. Like I did this chapter XP. So please review and remind me!  
  
Now, I could be nice and put up the next 2 chapters today, since I forgot last time, but I won't, partly to be mean and partly because chapter 9 has writer's block and I want the full 4 weeks to finish it ^^;;;  
  
And by the way, I love this chapter. This is all about Korimo, and I've started to really connect with her as a character. This chapter also clears a couple things up about her, which I think will help the story along later  
  
***********  
  
"Where do I start..." Korimo thought back. There was no need for her to remember her parents; she'd dismissed them from her mind as soon as they were gone. The only adult she'd ever respected was her teacher. "Well Yume," she picked the cat up and sat down. "I'll start with that first day I met my Sensei."  
  
"Stop that kid! She's a thief!" Korimo looked behind her, a pearl necklace in her hand. The 13-year-old knew enough to run and sell it somewhere else, along with another pathetic story, to get a few handouts and enough cash to live a few more days.  
She ran on amid the angry cries of the shopkeeper she'd stolen from, keeping her eyes on the road ahead. The few times she stopped to look back, she tried to make sure she wouldn't run into anyone who would slow her down. However, an old woman stepped out of the shop in front of her, and Korimo crashed into her and fell to the ground.  
"Now what's this?" the woman asked herself softly, looking at the girl's glittering violet eyes. Korimo pushed herself off the floor and started to run again. Before she knew what had happened, the old woman's hand had a tight grip on Korimo's forearm, and the girl was stopped short.  
"Let go of me!" Korimo tried and failed to pull away.  
"What's the hurry, child?"  
"Just lemme go!"  
The woman took her hand away. Korimo turned to run, but to her great surprise found herself unable to.  
"Why are you running?" the woman's voice was soft, yet carrying, and authoritive and kind, a combination Korimo didn't accept. "Where is your caretaker?"  
"You mean my mom?" Korimo pulled out her pity story. "I dunno." She looked at the floor, even calling a few tears to her cold eyes. "She left home a long time ago...I dunno where she went..." Suddenly, a patch of her skin the woman had touched began to glow faintly red. Korimo managed to hold back a shriek. "What was that?" she asked, once the glow faded.  
The woman tapped Korimo's arm. "It's a simple truth spell. And that my dear, was a lie." She smirked slightly at the girl's suspicious look.  
"What are you?"  
"I'm a sorceress. And I'm only telling you this because unless I'm mistaken, so are you."  
Korimo and the woman stood in silence for a moment.  
"...what?"  
"Well come along dear," the woman turned, and began to walk away. "Come with me and I think you'll find something in yourself you'll enjoy."  
Korimo, still suspicious, followed the woman out of the marketplace and to a secluded home in a clearing in the woods.  
"What do they call you, dear?"  
Korimo kicked a pebble on the ground. "Name's Korimo. Same question?"  
  
"You should be more polite to your elders, Korimo. But you're right, I haven't introduced myself. My name is Shinju, and should you pass a test of mine, I shall be your teacher."  
"Well then see ya. I'm not sticking around just to take orders from you." Korimo began to walk away. Shinju muttered something softly, and Korimo turned back around to look at her. "What are you-"her words were cut off by a gasp as she found herself again unable to move.  
"Wouldn't you like to learn that, dear? It stops your enemies right in their tracks until you want them to move again." Shinju released her invisible hold on the younger girl.  
Korimo looked at her, still suspicious but interested. "What kind of test?"  
"Follow me inside. If I'm correct, you should have no problem." Shinju led Korimo into her simple house, and lifted a small ball of glass, about the size of an orange, off of a shelf in the back of the first room. "Just hold this in your hands, and see what happens."  
Korimo took the object from Shinju, and for a few moments, nothing happened. Then suddenly a huge burst of violet light exploded from the ball, sending up enough force to blow the girl's long hair all the way back. She screamed in surprise, and even in fear before she could stop herself. Then as quickly as the light had appeared, it vanished and the wind died down. Korimo stood still, thrown into shock by the force of the energy that had come out of the glass.  
Shinju took the ball from Korimo's still hands, placing it carefully back on its shelf. "Such power," she muttered to herself. "but purple energy; dark and passionate."  
"What...what is that thing?" Korimo asked, once she'd gotten her voice back.  
"That was your test dear. I enchanted this item myself to measure my own magical energy, and that of my pupils. You've passed, and with flying colors. You'll make a wonderful sorceress, given the chance. Will you take it, Korimo?"  
Korimo looked down at her hands, her body still trembling from the force of the magic she'd never known she had. ~so much power...~ she thought. ~all mine...I could do anything...~  
"Well?"  
  
Korimo looked up and smiled sincerely. "Of course Sensei!"  
Shinju allowed a grin to spread across her ageing, pretty features. She bent down to hug the girl before her. "I think you'll be just fine now, Korimo dear."  
Korimo smirked when her new teacher couldn't see her face. ~poor fool.~  
  
Training to become a sorcerer is long and hard work. Almost a year and a half later, Korimo had finally mastered the basics, healing spells, potions and spells to slow down or incapacitate an enemy, nothing that could do much real damage.  
During that year, Korimo had somewhat unwillingly shared her history with her teacher, careful to manipulate the truth and not to give details while under the truth spell. She told Shinju about her childhood, in a poor city, with an alcoholic father and a mother who was never around. She left out how much she had despised her parents for all they did wrong. She only told Shinju that they had died, not that she had caused their death. She said that she was able to fend for herself, not mentioning the long list of petty crimes that allowed her to do so. Shinju sighed hearing all this. There was a lot of darkness in such a young girl.  
Finally, the day came Korimo had been waiting for since she discovered her powers. Shinju led her to a clearing in the forest. "Now, you're finally ready to learn more complicated magic," she said. Korimo's violet eyes twinkled happily. "Up until now, The spells I've taught you haven't been able to do any damage, only help to yourself and others. So I have something very important to teach you before we go on."  
"Teach me Sensei! I've been waiting so long to use attack spells."  
Shinju sighed. "Korimo, I know what you've been through, and I fear it will have a negative effect on you. Now look up." Korimo complied, shielding her eyes to the bright sunlight. "The day is when my powers are at their strongest. The sunlight restores my energy and grants me strength. This is because I am a good person. I've never once used an attack spell for anything but defense. And no matter how strong you grow, I hope I never have that as an advantage over you."  
"What do you mean Sensei?"  
"those who are ill-intentioned, those who take pleasure in another's pain, those with warped souls and hearts grow dark. They gain power from the moon and the night. I hope that never happens to you." Shinju answered gravely. "It's all too easy for someone as young as you to stray off the path of goodness, and onto that of evil. Before I begin to teach you magic that can cause harm to another, promise me that you will not lose your path."  
"Don't worry Sensei, I'll always be on the good side," Korimo promised.  
With her fingers crossed behind her back.  
  
It wasn't long after that that Korimo began to see her own joy in having magic. During the daytime, nothing changed. But at night, Korimo routinely cast a spell on herself to keep her awake, and she traveled the woods alone. At first, it was enough just to feel the currents of power flowing beneath her skin in the moonlight, but Korimo soon grew impatient. She started testing her magic, using freeze charms to stop hungry forest creatures inches from their food, inventing spells Shinju never would have learned herself, just to cause pain.  
It became clear to Shinju that Korimo's power was weaker than it should have been while they were training. She followed Korimo one night, shielding herself with an invisibility charm, and saw all the girl did. By now Korimo was 16, and her knowledge of sorcery was as large as Shinju could have hoped years ago. But her motives were unclear, her goals petty and small, her power becoming more and more evil with each passing night. Hearing Korimo's laughter at torturing a tiny mouse, Shinju had no doubt that the girl had to be stopped.  
  
She tried to plan everything out so that her grim duty would be done smoothly and painlessly. As cold-hearted and vile as Korimo was becoming, Shinju had a deep affection for her student. She told Korimo to go to bed early for some special training activity in the morning, slipping a sleeping powder into the girl's drink at dinner. Long after the moon had risen, Shinju crept into Korimo's bedroom with a small bag of powder, poisonous if ingested. It was the only amount of any type of poison she had ever made. She stepped quietly to Korimo's bed to find the girl deeply asleep.  
"I'm sorry young one," she whispered. "But it had to be done." Carefully, she sprinkled a pinch of the poison into Korimo's open mouth. She stirred slightly, then disappeared.  
Shinju gasped, feeling a light hand on her shoulder. She stood instantly and distanced herself from the real Korimo as much as she could. "A doppelganger, Korimo? Where did you learn that? I never taught it to you."  
"Oh, is it something you know then? Pity," Korimo looked at her long nails, "I love making unique spells. I just made that one up a few days ago. I thought it would be useful with you trying to murder me and all." She glared at her former teacher. "But no matter, I still have plenty of spells that are all mine. Like this one, for example." Korimo threw her hand out in front of her, extending her arm and shooting a burst of vivid green magic that engulfed Shinju. The woman screamed as the agonizing pain Korimo had trained the spell to inflict took its toll.  
Korimo leaned down beside the older woman on the floor, grinning sadistically. "Well, I don't think you'll be killing me after all, right Shinju-chan?"  
"I am still your teacher Korimo," Shinju stood up with difficulty. "You will continue to address me as such."  
Korimo greeted her teacher's attempt to control her with another dose of her new spell. "The way I see it, I'm stronger than you. And that means I've graduated. No need to hang around here anymore."  
"What happened to you Korimo?" Shinju asked, despair showing in her eyes. "You were so excited and happy to learn only a few years ago."  
"Hm. You still haven't caught on, have you?" Korimo threw her head back and laughed. "It was all an act. Even from the beginning you wouldn't have been useful to me once I'd learned what I wanted to know."  
"You promised me...you promised you'd never stray from light, never turn to the dark..."  
Korimo crossed the first two fingers on her left hand, holding it up for Shinju to see. "I lied." She explained pleasantly. "But it's no matter, you'll die now anyway."  
"You could have been great, Korimo. You could have done wonderful things. Now you'll never be anything. You'll never have true strength, not from the darkness."  
Korimo sent another blast of her magic in Shinju's direction, then left the small house. She looked at it and cupped her hands, focusing her energy on the first destructive spell she'd been taught.  
"Goodbye Sensei, and good riddance. And when you see my parents, tell them I'm not sorry." A tiny ball of red light gathered in her hands, blossoming into a fireball, which she launched at the cottage. She then walked out of the woods, enjoying the luxuriant feel of the light of a full moon against her skin, never once looking back.  
  
***  
  
"She said I'd never be anything the way I was, Yume." Korimo looked at the screens behind her, noting what Fukamito was doing. "I'll prove her wrong. I'll be the strongest there is once I beat Yugi and his friends. So come on Yume," she put the cat down and he trotted obediently beside her legs as she walked. "We can't keep little Tea waiting for too long, now can we?" she smirked, and walked out of her home 


	8. Tea Captured

Well a jolly good ol' Hello to anyone out there in readerland who's still sticking with this fic. I really hope you few are enjoying this, because it's getting to be a pain to update and receive no input at all. Please, I beg you, tell me how you like my fic. It's my first really kinda saga-ish thing, and I want to know how I'm doing. Once again, the more reviews, the more reliable updates. So R&R!  
  
WARNING: starting this chapter, the drama starts taking over. There is pain in this part of my story. At this point, it's still rather mild, but if you don't want to read it, I understand. You may stop here. But if you go on to ignore this warning and try to flame me, you will be ridiculed beyond imagination.   
  
Tea was walking home by herself from the Game Shop. Since Ryou had been taken captive, the gang tried as hard as they could not to be alone, but no one else lived near Tea, and they all had to get home too.  
To make up for it, Tea tried to be suspicious, keeping a low profile and looking all around her, so as not to be caught off-guard. But it wasn't her nature to be suspicious of anyone, unfortunately for her.  
She could hear the sad, soft, strained howling from the sidewalk. She looked into the alley where it came from to see a beagle puppy, just barely able to walk. It looked hungry and cold. Tea reminded herself that the demon Fukamito had gotten Ryou by being a kitten, and tried to walk away.  
But she couldn't leave the dog alone.  
To her credit, it took a long time, but she went into the alley eventually to soothe the puppy.  
"There there little one, it's okay now." She reached a hand out to pat the dog on the head. It gently nuzzled against her palm, and she picked it up.  
The puppy began to wriggle in her arms after a little while, and she put it on the ground. Suddenly, it ran faster than she expected into the park nearby. Tea ran after the dog, but she couldn't find it anywhere in the direction it had gone. She paused to catch her breath under the shade of a tree, not thinking to look up, where a bat hung over her head, eyes gleaming with malicious delight.  
"Here doggie, come here boy! Where are you?" Tea looked around. A dark mist began to form around her head, particles of black dust beginning to clog her throat. The girl coughed and fought for breath, but the mist was too much for her. She fell unconscious on the ground.  
Fukamito the bat flew out of the tree, flapping his wings to clear the air of his poisonous gas, one of the few demon powers he had. He then became a much bigger dog. He picked Tea up gently, finding a way to carry her on his back. He hid her and himself behind a clump of bushes, until his master could come and take her away without being suspicious.  
  
Tea woke up groggily a little while later. She sat up immediately as she remembered what had happened, looking around to try and see where she was. She could tell that she was being imprisoned just by reasoning, although the room she was in was furnished and accommodating.  
Tea found herself in a good-sized bed in a dark blue room. She got up to inspect her surroundings better. One normal-sized doorway and a small window were the only exits. Tea was smarter than to assume the door was a good way out. More likely than not, it was guarded constantly, she guessed. The window would be her only means of escape, then. She walked over. The window was open, allowing a light breeze and sunlight to come through and play through the light curtains. Feeling a little bit calmer just to see the sun, Tea stuck her head through the window, quickly pulling it back inside once she saw the drop. She was on the top story of a rather tall building. No escape from the window.  
Just then, the door started to open. Tea ran over the thick, dark blue carpet, jumping back onto the bed and pulling the covers over herself as Korimo walked into the room.  
"No use trying to pretend you're still asleep. It's late morning already, and Fukamito's spell should have worn off a long time ago." Tea heard Korimo's voice and her heart pounded.  
"What do you want?" Tea asked, trying her best to sound confrontational while still under the covers.  
"Well it's more a matter of what you want. I've got food if you want to eat, but if you'd rather stay there, that's fine with me."  
Tea grudgingly sat up, her stomach grumbling as she realized that she hadn't eaten since lunch the day before at Yugi's house. "This doesn't mean I trust you," she said to the wall.  
"That makes you a smart girl. Here," Korimo shoved a bowl of something warm and sweet-smelling into Tea's hands. The younger girl looked at the bowl hungrily, but didn't eat.  
"What did you do to it?"  
"Tea, you're smart, but apparently not smart enough to know the basics of hostage taking." Korimo smirked. "I'm not stupid. If you get hurt, I have nothing to bargain with, and then where am I?"  
"Nowhere, I guess," Tea admitted. She put the bowl down on a little table next to the bed.  
A little black cat poked its head into the room, trotting to Korimo's feet and begging softly for attention. Korimo absently reached down to scratch it.  
"That's that thing of yours, isn't it?" Tea asked, more out of curiosity than suspicion.  
"Hm? No, just a cat." Korimo stood up again quickly. Yume looked up at her pleadingly, but she ignored her pet.  
Tea put out a hand and called softly, "Here kitty, c'mere." Yume walked to her, jumping up onto the bed. Tea began stroking his soft fur.  
"What, you don't trust me but you trust my cat?" Korimo asked, one eyebrow raised in amusement.  
"Well it's not the cat's fault his owner is a psycho," Tea countered.  
  
Korimo laughed merrily. "It's a shame we're on different sides, Tea. I could have grown to like you."  
"Well it's not mutual," Tea replied coldly. Korimo chuckled again, and left Yume in the room with Tea.  
  
Fukamito went to meet his master in his cat form in the middle room, where all the screens were.  
"Is everything ready?" Korimo asked, sitting down and adjusting a few things.  
"Yes, Milady. Though it does seem a bit too convenient that such an elaborate building exists in the woods so close to the city."  
Korimo smirked. "Perfect. Eerie convenience is nothing more than luck, though so many people will read too much into it. Now, get the message to Yugi and we'll meet him there." Korimo once again handed her servant a piece of folded paper. Fukamito bowed, and left the room as the scruffy stray dog.  
  
Tristan burst into the game shop, slamming the door behind him and running to where Yugi sat frozen on the sofa, surrounded by Joey, Serenity, and Ryou.  
"What happened?" he asked. "Bakura called me and told me to come but..." he trailed off, seeing the expressions on everyone's face. Serenity looked like she was about to cry, and Joey had his arm around her. Yugi was just staring at the ground. Even Joey looked serious. Ryou picked a note up off the table, handing it to Tristan.  
"Tea is with me. Don't worry, she's safe; but how long she stays that way is up to you. If you'd like to rescue your damsel in distress, come to the edge of the woods just off the north side of the city at 8 pm sharp. Come prepared; you may not leave for a while. Do NOT be late, if you value her safety." Again, the note had no signature. There was no one else it could possibly have been from.  
"Man..." Tristan muttered. Serenity finally burst into tears.  
"Don't cry, sis," Joey said, hugging Serenity tightly. "Nothing's gonna happen to Tea. There's no way that freak is gonna get away with this!"  
Bakura nodded. "We'll make sure to get Tea back safely, but we have to keep from getting too emotional. If we can't think straight, we won't be able to do anything."  
Serenity wiped her hand over her eyes, pulling herself away from her brother's embrace. "R-right," she said. "Right, we gotta be strong. R-right Yugi?"  
Silence.  
"Yuge? You okay?" Joey asked.  
No response. Yugi wasn't there. He was hiding inside his mind, trying to escape the reality of his situation.  
  
"You can't stay in here forever, Yugi," The boy's dark side chided his light. "If we want to help Tea, we'll have to go."  
Yami was standing outside of Yugi's soul room, where the latter had locked himself upon hearing that Tea had been kidnapped. Yugi sat on the stone floor of his room, ignoring everything else as he played on his game boy.  
"Yugi, you can't just hide from this." A couple of years experience had taught Yami what to expect from his lighter side. Yugi was a good kid, he had learned, but in serious situations, he sometimes didn't know what to do, and tried to remove himself from the scenario unless he was sure of a way to solve his problem.  
Yugi still tried to ignore what was happening, but he couldn't. While he tried to block out thoughts of Tea, those thoughts multiplied tenfold, and became worse. He sat on the cold floor, ignoring the voice of his wiser half outside the room, only able to think of her alone, scared and in pain.  
  
"What if...what if she's hurt?" he mumbled.  
"We won't let Tea get hurt, I promise." Yami tried to comfort Yugi. "We know that she's been captured, but that means that she's safe, at least for now."  
Nothing happened for a moment, then Yugi cracked the door open. "What do you mean, Yami?"  
Yami privately breathed a sigh of relief. Now, Yugi would listen to reason. "Korimo is smart. She knows that we care about Tea, and she knows that we won't do anything to put Tea in danger. If anything happens to her, Korimo has nothing to barter with. It's very basic."  
"Are you sure?"  
"Of course. Yugi, do you want me to handle this? Maybe I can help think of something she wouldn't expect."  
Yugi thought for a second. "Okay."  
"Don't worry Yugi, I'll make sure Tea gets back safely."  
  
A bright flash from the Millennium Puzzle, and Yami sat on the sofa in Yugi's place.  
"Yugi?" Serenity had been calling his name for reassurance for a little while. Yami picked his head up to look at her, by now accustomed to answering to Yugi's name. "Everything is gonna be fine, right Yugi?" Serenity's tears were welling up again.  
"Of course, Serenity. We just have to think." Yami picked up the note and read it over. "She said not to be late. Let's see what happens if we're early."  
"That's not a bad idea," Ryou said. "We might catch her unprepared."  
"Okay! We got a game plan!" Joey pumped a fist into the air, keeping his sister close to his side with the other hand.  
"Alright, if Korimo said 8 o'clock, we'll be there at seven." Yami stood up. "We should get ourselves ready. Go get what you think you may need, and meet back here at 6:30."  
"Thanks Yugi, I just know we'll be fine now!" Serenity said happily. She sniffed back her old tears and smiled, enveloped by the feeling that everything would be all right. 


	9. Setting one of them against the rest Yug...

Hey again to anyone reading. I just have to put a warning in here, this chapter is where the violence really picks up. In the remainder of the fic, there will be violence, there will be torture, and there will be death. If you don't want to read it, please stop now.  
  
Incidentally, I've decided that for my own amusement, I'll be creating ridiculously long and descriptive titles for my chapters, following an Inuyasha tradition. Thank you.

...........................................................................

"Joey! It's already 20 after six! We're going to be late!" Serenity called up to her brother from the bottom of the stairs. She had a small backpack on, which held a few bottles of water and some food, along with her smallest stuffed rabbit for comfort.  
"Geez sis, hold yer horses!" Joey ran to the top of the stairs, simultaneously shoving things into his bag and trying to force his left sneaker onto his foot. "Here, catch!" Joey threw the bag to his sister. Serenity caught it and fell over from the weight.  
"Joey, what did you fill this with?" She asked, struggling to get up and pick the bag off the floor at the same time.  
"Uh, lessee...I got my lucky horseshoe, my cool chain thing for fighting, some snacks, my I-pod-"  
"Joey, that's way too much and you know it!" Serenity dumped Joey's things out of the bulging pack and began sorting through them. "Chain, okay. I-pod, no. Horseshoe, no. snacks, okay. comic books, definitely not. ...." She continued like this until about three-fourths of the bag's former contents were removed, and the pack was much more suitable for travel. "Now let's go!"  
"Serenity, are you sure you want to-"  
"For the last time Joey, yes!" Serenity was almost yelling, she was so impatient and annoyed. She took a deep breath. "Joey, Tea's my best friend in the world. Of COURSE I'm going to help you guys save her."  
"Okay sis...just don't get hurt, alright?"  
"Right Joey. Now let's go!" Serenity grabbed her brother's hand and pulled him out the door after her.

............  
Korimo looked at the digital watch on her slender wrist. "6:30. Perfect. We'll be more than ready when they get here." She turned to Fukamito. "Well done. Maybe Yugi is smarter than we gave him credit for..." She let her voice trail off, noting the environment around her.  
The mansion she stood in front of had a strange history in Domino. A rich eccentric had had it built years ago, but being a rich eccentric, never had anyone to give it to when he passed away. The house had stood for almost 20 years deep in the woods. When it was still nice, it cost far too much for anyone in the city to bother with, and when the price went down, it was because of the decay. Everything about the place creaked, moaned or squealed in some way now. The forest around it was very dense, making it hard to hear someone coming near, yet easy to track someone you were following. It was just perfect for Korimo's uses.  
Korimo stretched out on a high tree limb. "Well, we've got a little bit of a wait, but the real challenge will arrive soon..."

..........  
Joey and Serenity were the last ones to make it to the Kame Game Shop. Tristan, Ryou and Yami were waiting impatiently when they came through the door.  
"Sorry we're late," Serenity said softly.  
"It's no trouble, let's just head out now," Ryou suggested.  
"Let's see what we have first," Yami said. "That way we'll know ahead of time if there's anything else we need."  
"I brought some rice cakes and water," Serenity piped in happily.  
"My fighting chain an' some junk food," was Joey's contribution.  
"I also brought water, and a couple of blankets. It's getting colder, and it will be night by the time we get to where we're going. Oh, and a first-aid kit, too."  
"Good thinking Bakura. I have a flashlight and knife," Yami said, looking through Yugi's Dark Magician backpack.  
"Well we're going to the woods, aren't we? So I gotta have the Great Outdoors Survival Guide!"  
"Oh geez Tristan, not THAT again..." Joey mumbled.  
"What else might we need?" Yami asked.  
"Maybe some kind of a tent?" Serenity suggested.  
"That might be too hard to carry, though. But I can drape one of these blankets around a few tree limbs, and that should be just as good," Bakura explained.  
"And besides, I'm sure Korimo's got a nice warm welcome all set up for us," Tristan said darkly. "We probably won't be out in the woods for too long."  
"Right. And with any luck, we'll find Tea and get her out of there in no time, anyway." Yami stood up, slipping his arms through the backpack straps. "And we have surprise on our side. We'll be there long before she'll be ready for us. Now let's move out!"  
The four other voices chorused as one, "Right!"

..............  
Of course, Korimo was more than ready by the time Yami-tachi got to the meeting place in the woods. As they passed under the tree next to hers, Korimo jumped down from the branch she had been sitting on, landing lightly on her feet directly in front of them. "Well well, it's not polite to keep a lady waiting," She chided, relishing the looks of shock on five faces.  
"How did you know!?" Serenity cried out. Her voice was a little too loud, a universal sign of fear. "You said 8 o'clock! It's barely 7:15!"  
"Yes, well I believe you said 7 o'clock, didn't you? I've been waiting."  
"You scum!" Joey yelled. "You've gotta be spyin' on us!"  
Korimo folded her arms over her chest. "Well of course. Fukamito," she called into the trees. The demon flew down as a crow, landing on her shoulder. "What form did you take earlier to watch them?"  
"A fly, milady. I was able to get in through the window."  
Korimo turned back to Yami. "You left the window open while planning a sneak attack? Tsk tsk," she shook her finger, "not a bright idea."  
"But how!?" Tristan asked.  
"Don't you get it?" Korimo reached a hand up to stroke Fukamito's feathered neck. "My servant acts as my spy. He's a shape-shifter, as I sincerely hope you were able to figure out. It would be terribly pathetic if you hadn't noticed by now. But anyway, that effectively makes him the perfect spy. He can become whatever he needs to in order to fit seamlessly into any room. But it's no matter now, it's far too late."  
"I'm afraid I agree with you," Yami said boldly. "But we've shown up, and you've obviously prepared for our arrival. Why don't we just skip the formalities and move along?"  
"Yuge, are you sure-"  
"Yes Joey. Well, Korimo?"  
"Oh, I do so love banter. But very well, I'll humor you." Korimo snapped her fingers, and motioned into the thick forest behind her. "I have indeed prepared something quite special for you all. If you can make it past him, than join me in the main hall of the abandoned mansion for your next task."  
"Where's Tea!?" Serenity yelled out, to everyone's surprise. "How do we know she's okay? How do we know you're not just playing with us?!"  
Korimo smiled just a little bit, turning her head to face Serenity. "Tea is perfectly fine. She hasn't been harmed. Yet. And believe me, if you manage to get past me, she will be returned to you in one piece. You have my word."  
"Yeah, so what's that worth?" Joey asked angrily.  
"It's the only thing you have to go by," Korimo retorted. "Now with no further delay, will you come and join us, Duke?"  
"Duke?" Yugi, Ryou, Tristan and Joey asked in unison. In the next moment, he stepped out from behind a tree.  
"I trust you're familiar with Duke Devlin." Korimo smirked. "Take care of them, Duke."  
He pulled a small knife out of his pocket. "Yes, Lady Korimo."  
As Duke ran forward into the group of his friends, Korimo and Fukamito disappeared, and sneaked back to the mansion in the woods.

....................  
  
As soon as they were out of sight and hearing of Yami-tachi, Korimo dealt her servant a blow across his crow's head. "Who was that?"  
"Milady, I don't understa-"  
"That was not Yugi Moto. Who was he!?" Korimo picked the crow up off the ground, gripping his neck tightly and speaking with passionate calmness. "I told you I had too much to do here to watch you, and I ordered you to tell me everything that happened. Are you truly stupid enough not to notice?"  
"Milady, I'm sorry, I didn't see," Fukamito pleaded. Korimo threw him back down to the ground in disgust.  
"You are off the hook this time. But rest assured, if you ever withhold information from me again, it will count as betrayal. And we both know what happens then."  
"Of course Milady, it will never happen again!"  
"It had better not, for your sake." Korimo looked up, taking note of the waning crescent moon just beginning to peek through the trees. "Now stay and watch the fight. Tell me what happens, and tell me everything this time." She closed her eyes and evaporated into a mist of glittering red smoke.

.................  
  
Korimo reappeared in front of the dungeon-like cell Tea now inhabited.  
"It appears little Yugi is more than he seems. You know him quite well Tea, tell me what he is capable of," she demanded.  
"Why should I tell you? I'd never help you hurt Yugi!" Tea said bravely.  
"It appears you underestimate me." Korimo held her hand up. "There is more than enough power in my palm alone to make you talk. And I am perfectly willing to use it."  
"Try me!"  
Korimo shot a burst of green light through the barred door. The light engulfed Tea, giving her the sensation of being ripped apart. The girl screamed and fell choking to the floor when the magic was withdrawn.  
"I can do this for as long as necessary. Now tell me who I met in the forest. It was most definitely not Yugi." Tea didn't answer. She was still catching the breath that the pain had knocked out of her. "Oh, too much for you? It shouldn't have been," Korimo drew her hand back to examine a fingernail, "That particular spell is designed to send out just as much as you can handle. It will never be enough to kill you. Though it should feel like it," she added, grinning. "Of course, I could easily remedy that and give you more..."  
"N-no..." Tea coughed weakly.  
"No? Well I suggest you start talking then. Or must I give you another demonstration?" Korimo held her hand up again, and Tea winced. "So talk. The boy I saw was not Yugi. His voice was different, and he was taller than the shrimp I'm used to. But your little friends still called him 'Yugi'. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about Tea, I'm not dumb enough to think this is the first time this has happened."  
"I...I won't tell you..."  
Korimo lost her smirk, and shot another burst of light at Tea. Tea screamed again and began shivering once the pain left.  
"You're not doing yourself any good, you know. Just tell me about him, and I'll leave. I've more important things to deal with anyway."  
Tea gulped and bit her lip before speaking. "He...His name is Yami...and he's unbeatable." Even in her state, she was able to look at Korimo with strength in her eyes. "He's never lost at anything yet. There's no way you could beat him!"  
Korimo smiled. "Perfect. Thank you Tea." Then, true to her word, she walked away.  
Tea leaned against the wall of her cell. "Oh Yugi..." she started to cry. "I'm so sorry..."

............  
  
Tristan was the first to dodge Duke's attack. He was luckily standing with his back to a tree, and he was able to step out of the way at just the right moment. The momentum of Duke's knife sent it straight into the thick wood. Tristan lightly stepped back, landing a punch on the back of Duke's head as he went.  
"No, Tristan, don't hurt him!" Serenity yelled.  
"I think we have to, Sis," Joey said, stepping in front of her to act as a shield.  
"No, there has to be some way to snap him out of this!" Yami called to him. "Look at his eyes! He's being controlled."  
Suspiciously, Joey followed Yami's directions. "Hey, you're right! His eyes are totally blank!"  
Tristan side-stepped another onslaught. "That doesn't really help! Joey, get over here!"  
"I'm comin' Tristan!" Joey ran forward, stopping just long enough to fish the chain out of his backpack.  
"Duke, why are you doing this!?" Serenity yelled. She started to run forward, but Ryou grabbed her arm to stop her.  
"That's not Duke," Ryou explained to her. "He's been brainwashed-- he doesn't remember any of us!"  
"DUKE!" Serenity yelled again.  
Duke turned his head in her direction, his eyes focusing on her as a target. Joey quickly stepped in front of him, lightly tapping the top of his head with the chain and moving to the side. Duke's focus returned to Joey and Tristan.  
"Careful sis, don't draw attention to yourself," Joey called back.  
"Joey, what are we gonna do? We've gotta snap him out of it!"  
"You're right, Serenity, but we don't know how to do that right now. It's more important at this moment that we keep ourselves safe."  
"Joey, cover me!" Tristan shouted to his best friend. He made the mistake of looking at Joey over his shoulder, and in the instant his back was turned, Duke slammed his knife into Tristan's shoulder. Tristan swore under his breath as he went down, tripping over a tree root. Serenity shrieked, and Joey stepped in front of his friend to stop Duke from finishing his job.  
Yami, who had been standing to the side of the whole battle, suddenly moved in front of Serenity and Ryou. The quick action caught Duke's eye. He made a mad dash, turning his back to Joey and running straight to Serenity, knife drawn.  
"Hey, I'm the one you're fighting, not her!" Joey barked.  
Duke replied in a monotone. "You are protecting the girl. She must be important to you." He slashed randomly with his knife, forcing Yami and Ryou to step backward. Serenity was rooted to the ground in terror, and couldn't move. Duke crashed into her, and both of them fell to the floor. Serenity screwed her eyes shut and let out a heart-wrenching cry as Duke's arm went up, preparing to strike.  
However, Duke's arm stopped cold in midair, only a few inches from the girl's heart. When she didn't feel any pain, Serenity timidly opened her eyes. She saw something change in Duke's expression.  
"Sere...ni...ty..."  
He dropped the knife. It thudded harmlessly to the ground beside them.  
"What...what have I been doing...?" Duke stood up quickly, almost falling down again. He put a hand to the side of his head. His eyes went in and out of focus, finally returning to normal.  
"Duke, you're back with us," Yami said with a small sigh of relief.  
"What happened?"  
"We're not sure, dude. You were attacking us. Bakura said something 'bout you being controlled," Joey explained.  
Duke closed his eyes for a moment. "I remember...I remember now...Korimo...she got me..." He sat heavily on a log nearby. Serenity got up and walked over to him, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. Duke looked up at her, but didn't say anything.  
And in a pine tree nearby, a crow flew off toward the old mansion in the woods.


	10. The calm before the storm Korimo's Chal...

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. The night was clear, and the group spread themselves out under the stars to rest.  
Duke was awake longer than the rest of them. He had set himself up a little way away from the others.  
Serenity rolled over in her sleep, hitting her head on a pebble under her blanket. She woke unwillingly, rubbing her head. Looking around, she noticed Duke sitting up, just staring at the sky. Serenity draped her blanket around her shoulders and walked quietly to where he sat.  
"Is something wrong, Duke?"  
Duke turned around to face her. "Oh, hi Serenity. Nothing's wrong...just thinking."  
"About what?"  
"About you, actually." Duke stretched his arms over his head.  
"What about me?" Serenity asked, sitting next to him.  
"You remember what happened. You shook me out of my trance."  
"Me?" Serenity blinked. "But...I didn't do anything."  
"Well...I guess it's hard to explain..." Duke turned his head and spoke to the sliver of a moon in the sky. "It...it wasn't really me doing any of that stuff. I was just sitting back and watching. I couldn't do anything. That magic Korimo had...it was just too strong. I tried to stop it, I didn't want to hurt Yugi or Bakura, or even Tristan or Joey. But I guess I didn't want to help them enough. I couldn't stop myself. But when I tried to hurt you...I just couldn't do it. I really like you, Serenity," he added, still not looking at her. She blushed. "I know you probably don't like me the same way, but I wouldn't let anything hurt you. That's what gave me the strength to stop."  
"Duke..."  
"Don't mind me Serenity, just go back to sleep." He looked at her again and smiled.  
"Only if you get some sleep too."  
"Okay. Good night."  
"Night." Serenity went back to her spot next to Joey on the forest ground, and fell asleep.  
  
"They're not keeping lookout at all?"  
"No Milady, when you sent be back to check, I saw all of them asleep."  
"I know that fool, I was watching. I was merely thinking aloud." Korimo moved to kick her servant, who flew as a crow to a high shelf before he could be hurt. Korimo looked out the window, at the thin crescent of a moon. "Still, I thought them smarter than that. Perhaps this won't be much of a challenge after all."  
"Milady, aren't we going to go after them tonight? Is it not a good time, since they are unprepared?"  
Korimo sank into a chair, pulling out her ponytail and letting her hair cascade down her back. "You think well, but you forget. The sun will be up in a few hours. It's hardly worth it. I'll simply take care of them all tomorrow night."  
"But Milady-"  
"But what? I'm the master here, I make the decisions. You dare to question my authority?"  
"Not at all, Lady Korimo, but..." Fukamito stopped, unsure if he was allowed to continue.  
"But what?" Korimo smiled dangerously. "Tell me, what have I overlooked?" Fukamito didn't respond. "Tell me!" she repeated, louder.  
"Milady, the new moon comes in only three nights. You...if we do not act tonight, we will only have tomorrow and the night after."  
"Do you doubt my ability, Fukamito?"  
"Milady?" he asked, afraid to answer that it may be the wrong response.  
"Do you doubt that it is in my power to dispose of them before the new moon?"  
"No, Milady, of course not. I just thought-"  
"You just thought to give me an advantage I don't need. How sweet," she added dryly.  
"Milady, I-"  
"Spare me your pathetic apology and go check on the prisoner. At least you can still be useful to me, else I'd have to get rid of you."  
"Yes, Milady," said Fukamito, and he left.  
Korimo chuckled to herself. "Poor soul, too weak to fend for himself and too stupid to serve a good master well." She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. She had to focus carefully to bring Fukamito's sight into her own eyes, but once she had her spell in control, it was easy to keep. He was some sort of a bird, that much was evident from the high vantage point she was given. He landed a few feet from the cell door.  
Tea sat in her cell, huddled under the thin blanket she had been given to keep warm. She appeared to be asleep; she was not still, but tossed slightly and moaned in her dreams. But then, Korimo wasn't convinced. It wasn't hard to imitate sleep.  
Satisfied, Korimo reverted to her normal eyesight. She stood and walked to her window.  
"Soon Yugi, soon you and I will face eachother. Soon, I will defeat you, King of Games. Soon, I will prove myself to everyone I've ever known."  
  
The sun rose over the wood quietly, bringing welcome light and warmth to Yugi-tachi after the cold autumn night. Bakura was the first to wake, and began to set out a small breakfast of water and Serenity's rice cakes. One by one, the other members of the group woke up and went about various activities. Serenity helped Tristan neatly bandage his wound, which hadn't been properly cared for the night before. Everyone else relaxed somewhat, talking, joking, just hanging out.  
"Yugi, are we just gonna sit here all day?" Joey asked his friend, sitting next to him on a fallen tree trunk.  
"Of course not, we'll devise a plan of action and set out as soon as we've rested," Yami responded. "In fact, we should probably start thinking of a plan soon."  
Any other conversation between the two boys or anyone else was cut short but a rustling in the bushes a few yards away. Yami and Joey jumped up, adopting brave stances, while everyone else sat stock still.  
"Who's there?" Yami called out.  
"Yugi Moto, my master sends you her compliments." Fukamito's smooth, deep voice rang through the trees. Once again in crow form, he flew up from the bushes and perched on a high branch. "You have shown skills worthy of her challenge."  
"What do you mean?" Tristan asked angrily, trying to stand up while Serenity tried to keep him down.  
"Are you saying this was some sort of test?" Yami inquired.  
"Absolutely. Lady Korimo needed to be sure that you had the abilities she has heard you had."  
"That punk's no lady, she's a witch!" Joey yelled.  
The insult bounced right off of Fukamito, and expression did not change. "I have been sent to give you the information you require. The next battles will be fought in the mansion slightly west of this spot. You will each be assigned one specific task to perform individually. Should you fail your task, you will be taken captive along with your friend Tea." He paused for effect, taking his demonic pleasure at the pain and sadness induced by the mention of Tea's capture. "Lady Korimo also insists that under no circumstance are you to enter the mansion before sunset tonight. She has graciously given you the entire day to prepare. I strongly suggest you take it." With that, Fukamito flew into the morning sky.  
Everything was quiet for a few minutes after he left.  
"Yo Tristan," Joey broke the silence, "Anything in that Great Outdoors Survival Guide about dealing with freaky demon pets of evil nutcases?"  
"Hang on, I'll look," Tristan said helpfully, and Serenity, Duke and Ryou began to laugh. Even straight-faced Yami couldn't hold back a smirk. It took Tristan a moment to realize he was being made fun of. As soon as he figured it out, he retaliated by throwing the book into Joey's widely open and laughing mouth. This only caused everyone else to laugh harder.  
"You know what we need to do once we get in there?" Duke asked suddenly. Everyone turned to him. "We need to get rid of that thing. Betcha Korimo won't be so cocky without her little pet."  
"You mean kill it?!" Serenity asked, horrified.  
"We may have to-"Duke was cut off when Joey put a hand over his mouth.  
"Don't worry about it Serenity, we couldn't kill im, no matter how strange and annoying he is." Joey rubbed his neck with his free hand, keeping the other firmly on Duke's mouth. Duke made indignant noises and shoved Joey's hand away from him. He didn't say anything else.  
"That's actually a good idea," Yami said thoughtfully. "We may even be able to barter with her, the demon for Tea."  
"I wouldn't count on it," Bakura warned. "We shouldn't expect someone like Korimo to care for her lackey."  
"But still, it's a plan. Tonight at sunset, we'll go and see exactly what it is she wants from us," Yami said.  
And with the plan formed, the six friends awaited nightfall, and their next tasks. 


	11. Let the games begin! Tristan's test

That night at sunset, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Ryou, Duke and Serenity entered the creepy old mansion in the woods. Staying close together, they found themselves in the huge front hallway, surrounded by dilapidated marble stairs and elaborate designs on the walls.

"Where is she?" Serenity asked timidly.

Joey put his arm around her. "I dunno sis. Probly waitin up there somewhere for us to slip up." Serenity grabbed onto Joey's shirt.

"But we won't slip," Yami said confidently.

"We will if she wants us to," Duke said darkly.

"Duke! Don't say that, of course we won't mess up," Serenity said.

"I know how strong she is! We can't underestimate her!" Duke yelled. His voice echoed coldly over the stone in the hall. Tristan's head cocked instinctively to look at the new bandage on his shoulder, and Serenity's eyes widened slightly. For a moment, no one said anything.

"Well, are we uncomfortable?" the familiar, musical voice rang out from above them. "It's a shame," Korimo appeared several feet over their heads, floating calmly surrounded by a light glitter. "That wasn't supposed to happen until after our game started."

Joey and Tristan stepped up to fight, but Yami put a hand out to stop them, and looked up calmly at his opponent.

"What is it you want from us, Korimo?"

"What do I want? I want to defeat you. And believe me, I will." Korimo smiled smugly. "So let's get this show on the road, shall we? It's a very simple little game we'll be playing. As you've heard, you will each have to face one challenge. I've prepared them special, so do enjoy them," she finished mockingly.

"What kinda challenge?" Joey asked angrily.

"A hard one," was all Korimo answered. She smirked as Joey fought to hold back his rage. "So, we should get started. Should any of you lose my game, you'll be taken as my prisoner. So be careful, we don't want anyone to get hurt," she said dangerously.

"Just what do you plan to do to us if we are captured?" Yami asked.

"What else?" Korimo replied airily. "dispose of you all, of course."

"Not a chance! We're not losing," Tristan said.

Korimo shrugged. "Well obviously you can't lose until you start to play. So split up, and go your separate ways. And don't bother asking why," she added, seeing Yami about to object. "This is my game, and these are my rules. You will follow my rules, if you know what's good for you." She disappeared.

Everything was quiet for a moment.

Ryou broke the silence. "I...I guess we should split up then."

"No way Bakura, we gotta stick together!" Tristan said determinedly.

"No, Bakura's right," Yami said. "As much as I hate to admit it, Korimo is in charge. It wouldn't be a good move to disobey her."

"I dunno Yuge, something's fishy about this..."

"I know Joey, but what choice do we have?"

"Yugi's right," Duke said. "We'll just have to do what she tells us, and hopefully we'll all get out okay."

"We WILL all get out fine!" Serenity said confidently.

"Alright," Yami thought for a second before assigning teams. "I'll go alone. Bakura, you take Serenity with you, and Duke should go with Tristan in case his arm causes him problems. And Joey, that means you should go alone, too."

"What? No way!" Joey tightened his grip on Serenity's shoulder. "Serenity and me are sticking together!"

"That's right!" Serenity agreed.

"That might not be smart," Yami warned. "Joey, if something happened to Serenity, you wouldn't be able to think clearly."

"Well then I guess nothing's gonna happen to my sister then, huh?" Joey said defiantly.

"Yugi, we'll be just fine. Joey needs me," Serenity pleaded.

"Well....alright. Bakura, are you okay by yourself?"

"I'll be fine, Yugi."

"Okay then, it looks like it's time to go." Yami pointed dramatically up one of the staircases. "Whatever sick game Korimo thinks she's playing, we'll beat her at it! There's no way we'll let her get away with kidnapping one of our friends!"

"Way to say it, Yugi!" Tristan shouted.

"Let's go!" and the six friends took four paths, each leading to its own, separate, harsh test.

Korimo sat high in the rafters of the main room, taking a childish delight in the fun of being up high. Fukamito, a sparrow, perched beside her.

"Fukamito, finish preparations for Tristan's test. He'll be our first victim."

"Right away, milady." Fukamito flew away, and Korimo jumped down, landing lightly with the help of her magic. She walked quietly, following the path Duke and Tristan had taken. She stopped when she could hear their bickering voices.

"Look, I think we should go this way! I think I saw someone down the other hall."

"Oh, you're just so smart, aren't you Devlin? Oh, look! I'm Duke Devlin and I'm always right!"

"Listen to me idiot, I'm trying to keep us from getting captured!"

"Yeah well you're doing a great job! No one's tried to capture us!"

"Not yet, anyway," Korimo piped in, stepping into view. Both Duke and Tristan turned and put their fists up, ready to fight. "Oh, I won't fight you. That would be too easy for you."

"Then what the hell do you want?" Duke asked, venom in his voice.

Korimo shook her head. "Duke, Duke. You needn't worry about fighting me." She smirked. "You've already failed your test." She closed her eyes, concentrating hard, and then re-opened them, sending a wave of blue light to where Duke stood. In a second, Duke had disappeared.

Tristan looked dumbly at the spot on the floor where Duke's expensive shoes had been moments before. He then turned his eyes to Korimo, who stood confidently with her arms folded over her chest.

"What do you want me to do?" Tristan asked carefully.

"Your test is the least lethal, Tristan. All you have to do is solve a puzzle for me." Korimo snapped her fingers, and the hall melted away, leaving them in a dark room. There was now a wall in front of Tristan, with a row of jumbled letters in front of him:

NAISNIENLGELTETWEORRSD

"What's all this?" Tristan asked. The letters glowed faintly white against the dark grey stone of the wall.

"A simple word puzzle, nothing more." Korimo smirked yet again. "Cross out nine letters of these 22 to leave a single word behind." A piece of chalk, glowing faintly like the letters, appeared in Tristan's hand. "But be careful. Answer wrong, or do not answer, and you lose the game. Oh, and you've got five minutes. Good luck!" Tristan's eyes widened and Korimo smiled widely, leaning forward slightly and vanishing. Tristan stared dumbly at the chalk, then at the wall. Then, he started to think. Unfortunately for Tristan, he had never had too much experience with word puzzles. He'd never been good at them, and had never bothered to get better. He began to wish Yugi was there with him. He was good at this sort of thing, he'd know the answer.

Korimo's voice rang out all around him. "Be careful Tristan, if you wait much longer it will get much harder."

Tristan clenched his fists, the way he would if he were about to punch someone. Taking a deep breath, he turned back to the puzzle.

NAISNIENLGELTETWEORRSD

It didn't make any sense to him. For a full minute, he just stared at it, willing the wall to give up its secret. What were the rules again? Cross out nine letters to leave a single word. What word could possibly be there? Brows furrowed, he stared. Cautiously, he copied the letters onto the wall in another place with the chalk. They glowed faintly. Tristan began to randomly cross out letters, nine at a time.

ELTETWEORRSD

NAISNIENLGELT

NAISNIWEORRSD

Nothing.

"Time is halfway up. You've had the chance to solve this the easy way, but I'm afraid I can't allow that to you anymore." Korimo's voice seemed to be coming from his own head, it was all around him, irritating, proud, and correct. The original letters untangled themselves from each other, and began floating across the stone wall. They arranged themselves into one combination, then another, and another. Tristan growled softly, becoming more and more frustrated as the letters moved.

Tristan copied the original order of letters again, and continued to randomly cross letters out.

NININLELTWRSD

ASNENLETWRRSD

INNLGETETWEOR

"Only one minute left Tristan, you'd better hurry." Korimo laughed.

NINENGETORRSD

"Wait a second..." Tristan said to himself. He once again recopied the letters, this time circling specific letters; N I N E L E T T E R S

"Thirty seconds left!" the original letters moved around faster and faster, arranging themselves into one order after another. Tristan ignored them for a second.

"nine letters....I got it!" copying the original order one last time, Tristan crossed out the letters he'd circled. There were 11 letters left; A S I N G L E W O R D.

"A single word! I did it! I won!" Tristan pumped a fist into the air, only to hear Korimo's voice yet again, sour and annoyed this time.

"Not quite yet. You may have solved my puzzle, but remember what I said. You have to cross out nine letters of the 22 I gave you. You have 15 seconds."

Tristan's jubilant expression faded quickly, and he turned back to the original letters

EORRISTWENLGNELINATESD

"No..."

"I'm afraid so, Tristan." Korimo laughed again. "Hurry, you still have ten seconds."

Tristan rushed to find the letters he had to cross out, but it was too late.

"Time's up!" Korimo said. Tristan threw the chalk down and punched the wall. EORRISTWGNLAESD was still left. "And you were so close, too. Oh well, you've failed." Korimo appeared in front of him again.

"YOU!" Tristan rushed at Korimo, fists clenched, murder in his eyes. She was taken aback for a second, but quickly stuck her hand out, sending Tristan away in the same flash of blue that had taken Duke.

Korimo sighed, satisfied. "Well. That went well. He almost had me worried for a second." Then she too disappeared, ready to face her next opponent.

"In here," Fukamito hissed to his captives. A tiger, he roughly pushed Tea, Tristan and Duke into a small room. Tea went in quietly, but Duke and Tristan glared at the demon, ready to fight. "None of that now, I can kill you if I need to."

"What's the point of moving us, anyway?" Tristan, still furious at his loss and with his arm newly throbbing, had not wanted to leave the cell he'd been deposited in.

"Tristan, drop it," Tea protested quietly.

Fukamito returned Tristan's glare. "We don't want you rescued. One of your friends was getting dangerously close to your room. Lady Korimo is currently preparing your new accommodations."

"What is all this?" Duke asked, looking around at the room crowded with clothing and books, along with a few other random items.

"You don't need to know. It's all Lady Korimo's."

"Duke, don't bother," Tea said sadly. "Let's just wait it out, Yugi and the others will find us soon."

"You wish." Fukamito closed and locked the door behind him.

"God Tea, what happened to you?" Tristan asked.

"Nothing," she said, a little too quickly. "Really, I'm fine. I'm...I'm just worried." She sat carefully on a small bookshelf, feeling her hand connect with a bundle of loose papers. "Hey, what's this?"

"What's what?" Duke asked, stepping closer to her.

"Devlin! That was my foot!"

"I think there's writing on it...looks hand-written. I-I can't really read it in here though," Tea looked out the small window; it was pitch-black outside. "Not enough light..."

"Hang on, Yugi gave me his flashlight..." Tristan rooted around in his bag, pulling out said flashlight and handing it to Tea.

Tea flipped the light on and read silently for a few minutes. "It looks like a diary...It's Korimo's." she skimmed the papers, flipping through them quickly.

"What are you doing that for?" Duke asked.

"Maybe there's something in here that can help us..." Tea stopped flipping abruptly. "Here! This could be really important." She read:

"...Sensei told me before that dark power comes from the moon, but I've had to find the rest out on my own. She didn't want me to know, I expect. My new powers are strongest under the full moon, even during the daytime, when I'd otherwise be weaker. Likewise, the new moon drains my power, and I'm as weak under the stars as I am under the sun. I'll have to remember this, I wouldn't want to make a stupid mistake and mis-time an attack..." Tea folded the papers up, and stuck them in Tristan's bag.

"...this is huge." Tristan said, wide-eyed.

"The new moon is two nights away though, she planned this out too well," Duke said.

"But we can tell this to Yugi, he'll know what to do," Tea's voice now held just a quiver of hope. "He'll know how to get us out of this."


	12. A Trial of Trust! Serenity's challenge

Joey and Serenity wandered the twisting halls of the mansion together. Serenity held her brother's hand tightly, and did not stray far from his side. Joey squeezed her hand back, and kept his other arm around her shoulder, to comfort her.

They passed under an archway into another giant room. Together, they walked silently to the middle of the room, trying to decide where to go next.

They did not see Korimo crouched on top of the archway, ready to strike.

Korimo waited until she was sure they did not know she was there. In the thin glow of moonlight trickling in from a window on the opposite wall, she focused her magic and sent an immobilizing spell to Joey.

Joey, who had been standing rather still anyway, took a moment to notice that he could not move. He cried out, trying to make his legs move forward, or to remove his arm from around his sister.

"Joey! What's wrong? What is it?" Serenity pulled out of her brother's frozen grip.

"I...I dunno..." Joey said with difficulty- the curse had almost frozen his jaw shut.

"Don't worry, your brother will be fine," Korimo said, jumping nimbly from the arch down to the floor in front of the pair. "My spell will begin to wear off once I've left the room."

"Then go away!" Serenity yelled.

Korimo chuckled. "My, feisty one, aren't we? Serenity, your test begins now." With a waive of her hand, Korimo sealed all of the exits to the room with a pulsing magic barrier. Serenity looked around nervously, still clinging to Joey's hand.

"What...what do I have to d-do?" Serenity asked timidly.

"It shouldn't be TOO hard," Korimo started. "I'm going to tell you a few things. True things. All you have to do is keep your faith in your brother here," Korimo laid a hand possessively on Joey's shoulder. Serenity's fist clenched as if she were about to pull Korimo off her brother, but she did nothing.

"I can do that," she responded.

"We shall see." Korimo began to circle around the siblings. "Tell me Serenity, who is your brother's best friend?"

"Yugi," she answered instantly.

"Really? Interesting," Korimo looked at her long nails, "considering that he and Tristan used to beat Yugi up all the time."

Joey would have clenched his fists had he been able to move. No...no, she isn't supposed to know that...Serenity isn't supposed to know what I did.......

"What? Joey wouldn't!"

"Wouldn't he? Think about it Serenity. After all, your brother almost caused Yugi's death not too long ago, didn't he? In a duel, when the loser was eliminated."

Joey's eyes raced wildly around the room in his agitation.

"But that wasn't his fault, Yugi told me," Serenity said.

"It wasn't?"

"He was being controlled, it wasn't really him. Just like when Duke attacked me."

"But can you really forgive him, Serenity?" Korimo asked, walking a little way away and speaking over her shoulder. "After all, if he had been stronger, he wouldn't have been controlled. I underestimated Duke's feelings for you apparently- his desire not to hurt you was strong enough to throw off my spell. If your brother really cared about Yugi-"

"DON'T SAY THAT!" Serenity yelled. "Joey definitely cares about his friends! And so do I!"

"But do they care about you? They ran off when they were supposed to meet you, weren't they? After your operation?"

Serenity's eyes widened. "How...?"

"It doesn't matter. Joey wasn't even there when you got out, was he? He made you wait to see the world for his own selfish battle."

"N-no! That's not true..." but Serenity's voice was faltering. A little voice in the back of her head wanted to believe that it WAS true. Korimo turned back to Serenity.

"You've lost, Serenity. I can tell that you don't believe in your brother the same way you did this morning." Joey wanted nothing more than to tell his sister that it was all wrong, to explain what really had happened, but there was nothing he could do. "I'm afraid I'll have to send you away for now." And with the same magic that imprisoned Duke and Tristan, Serenity vanished. Korimo waved her hand, and released Joey from her hold.

"What did you do to her!?" Joey shook himself loose and put both his fists up.

Korimo folded her arms and smirked. "Really now, Joseph, is it wise to attack me? You saw what I did to your precious little sister."

"I hate you."

"Very well. That doesn't excuse you. Your test will begin shortly." Again, Korimo snapped her fingers and the intricate stone of the walls dissolved, replaced quickly by a large maze of high walls. Joey stood at the entrance, and Korimo perched on top of the first wall, looking down at him.

"What's goin' on?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten already. This is your test."

"I know that. Whadda ya want from me?"

"Your task, Joey, was picked just for you, based on what I've learned about you and your friends." Korimo said, smirking.

Joey clenched his fists and yelled back, "get to the point already!"

Korimo waved her finger at him. "Tut tut, at this rate you'll fail very quickly. And trust me, you do not want to fail."

"I ain't afraid of you!"

"You may not be. But I know your sister is." Korimo relished the instant change in Joey's expression at the mention of his sister- from a tight, angry bravado to desperate fear in half a second.

"WHERE IS SHE!?"

"Calm, Joey. Calm. She's just fine. For now."

"What did you do to her!?"

"I said, calm." Korimo dropped her amused air and set her ruby lips in a hard, serious frown. "Serenity is fine. However, if you want her to stay fine, you must pass your test."

Still clenching his fists and jaw, Joey forced himself to stay quiet this time.

"Good. Very good. You can be taught after all." The familiar smirk returned to Korimo's face. "So I suppose you want to know what your test is, don't you?" Joey's left eye started to twitch as he fought to keep himself quiet. "Very well. No doubt you've noticed the walls in front of you. Even you can't be that stupid." She paused, just to make Joey a little more irritated. "Through those walls you will find a series of several objects, people, scenarios, etcetera. Your task is to keep your cool through to the end of the maze."

"Whadda ya mean keep my cool?" Joey asked through gritted teeth.

"Should you become so frustrated that you yell, hit, or in any other way lose your temper, you will lose."

"That easy, huh?" Joey asked, a bit of his usual bravado creeping back into his voice.

"Oh no, not even close." Korimo smiled widely. "Before you lose, a warning shot will fire."

"Warning shot?!"

"Oh yes." She snapped her fingers, and Serenity appeared floating above her, tied up in rings of Korimo's magic.

"SERENITY!"

"Now, now, remember Joey, you must remain calm," Korimo reminded him. "If you are about to lose your temper and lose the game- and believe me, I will know- it's little Serenity here who'll pay the price."

Joey would have jumped the entire height of the wall to get to Korimo, were he not afraid for Serenity's safety. Instead, he had to content himself with resolving to beat the game he was about to play.

"So," Korimo continued. "I'd advise you to play extra-carefully, if you want to keep her safe."

"Don't worry, I will."

"Good. It's so much more fun when the victim tries his hardest before failing." Korimo smirked yet again, and snapped her fingers. A kind of rope swing made of the same energy beams as Serenity's bonds descended from the ceiling, giving Korimo a place to sit and watch, next to her newest captive. "Now, you may begin when you are ready."

Bracing himself for the worst, Joey walked around the first stone wall.

"But really, what are we gonna do now that we know this?" Duke asked, pacing around the new cell on the top floor.

"We can make a plan to escape, that's what," Tristan provided the answer, standing with his back against the wall.

"How? The only thing we know is that she'll be weak in two nights. By then, this'll all be over. One way or the other."

"We'll pass this along to Yugi. He'll know what to do," Tea repeated.

"But we'll only see him if he gets captured, too," Tristan protested.

"Wake up Tristan, he's not going to get out of this if we didn't. Not that it helps- he'll be in the same fix we are by the time he gets here."

"He'll find some way to get us out of here. There's gotta be something we're not thinking of."

"If we can't think of it, what makes you so sure Yugi will?" Duke asked.

"Nah, Tea's right," Tristan said. "Yugi's gotten outta tighter spots than this, hasn't he? Once we're all here, we'll be able to think of something."

"I really hope you're right," Duke said, and stopped pacing. He sat on the floor under the single, barred window and wondered silently how they could possibly get out alive.


	13. Double Trouble! Joey and Bakura

Hey everybody. Been a while since I talked, hasn't it? Anyone there? Anyone reading? Please tell me. Please? This is depressing. Well fine, read the fic-----

Joey walked between the high stone walls without immediately coming across anything that put Serenity in danger. He peered around the early corners, trying to brace himself for whatever might lie in his path. After a few empty halls, he started to really get worried.

"What're you up toâ?" he asked quietly, not expecting an answer. One came however, in the form of a quick, painful hit on the back of his head. Joey whirled around, cursing under his breath, and found a die at his feet.

"Oh ha ha, very funny. Me and Devlin worked it out, THANK you very much." He turned back around to try and move on, and a pebble hit him, this time in the shoulder. He gritted his teeth to the pain and turned around.

"Ya coward! Hittin' me with my back turned- that's no way ta fight! C'mon, fight like a man!" Another rock came flying at him, and Joey had to duck quickly to escape a blow to the head.

"But Joey, I'm not a man, am I?" Korimo's mocking voice rang through the room.

Joey growled just a little. "Yeah, guess you're right."

Korimo grinned. "But of course, you're right. It is rather immature of me, isn't it? Very well, you may move on, Joey. But be careful."

Shoving aside the warning in his mind, Joey stopped before the next corner. He closed his eyes to brace himself, and walked toward the next part of his test. But when he opened them again, nothing had changed. He stood in complete and utter darkness, blinking, confused.

"What's wrong, Joey?" came the voice. "Are you confused? Just keep walking."

Attempting to ignore her, Joey kept going. For a little while, nothing happened.

"OW!"

"Joey?" Serenity yelled out. "Joey are you okay?"

"Ughâyeah sis, I'm fine. Just stepped on something" That was an understatement. A sharp something or other had gone clear through Joey's sneaker and sock, digging itself into his foot. In the darkness, he pulled it out in one shot. He winced, but the wound wasn't deep, and he moved on.

"Impressive, Joey. A lesser man would have given up by now. You must know it will only get worse.

"Yeah, but I can take it. I'm not about ta let you get away with this!"

"Careful, Joey. Don't get to worked up- not if you want your sister to live."

"AAAII!"

"SERENITY!" Joey ran forward to where he could see again, tumbling and tripping over several traps on his way. He looked up nervously, and saw Serenity still suspended from the ceiling, pain in her face but nothing else apparently wrong.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!?" Joey yelled.

"Nothing fatal. Be careful, Joey." Korimo repeated.

"CAREFUL MY ASS!" Joey braced himself and took a running start. "LET HER GO!" he jumped high into the air, almost clearing the walls. But almost didn't cut it. Joey's leg hit the wall with a huge impact, sending him flying over to the other side.

"JOEY, DON'T!" Serenity cried, but she was too late.

"Oh dear, I believe that counts as a loss of your temper, Joey." Korimo gave him her trademark smirk. "You've lost."

With a wave of her hand, Korimo sent what appeared to be a jet of flame in Serenity's direction. The girl's shriek echoed around the stone room, and she disappeared- sent to the same prison as everyone else. Joey screamed right along with her in anger and fear. Before he could tell Korimo just what he was thinking, the same magic engulfed him. Expecting a torturous heat, Joey was surprised to feel nothing at all, until he landed on the hard floor of the cell.

"Joey!" Serenity ran right into him, knocking him over in her embrace.

"Serenity, you're okay." He hugged her back tightly, but winced as she accidentally kicked his foot.

"Joey, what's wrong?" Tea asked, seeing him in pain. She, Tristan and Duke moved closer to where he sat on the floor.

"It's nothin'"

"It is not nothing Joey, your foot's bleeding!" Tea wasted no time in pulling off Joey's left shoe and sock to get to the wound. "I can't see it well enough- give me that flashlight Tristan." He handed it to her, without a word. Tea clicked it on and inspected Joey's foot. "It doesn't look too deepâbut we should get it bandaged up as soon as possible."  
"Bakura's got the first-aid kit we brought," Tristan said.

"When he gets here, we'll be able to help Joey."

"If he gets here, Devlin." Joey pushed himself up, careful to put his weight on his right foot. "Bakura's smart, he'll get outta this."

"We're smart too- well, Tea and I are at any rate-"Tristan glared at Duke, "And we got captured."

Tea tried to move to a gentler topic. "Besides, if Bakura and Yugi aren't captured, they'll come get us anyway. They wouldn't leave us behind."

"Right, Yugi'll be here any minute!" Joey said.

"And we ARE going to bandage your foot, Joey. You can't run away if you can't run," Serenity added seriously.

"Alright, alright. I won't fight it. Sheesh, you're worse than ma!" Joey smiled at his little sister, and in return she laughed and gave him another hug.

Even as Joey was losing, Ryou was preparing himself for his test. He had predicted from the start that he could not predict what might happen to him, so he knew he had to be ready for anything. He was also the most wary and cautious, having been taken captive already. In fact, Ryou even knew he was going to lose- even if only subconsciously. Resigned to failure yet cautions nonetheless, he wandered the same endless hallways as his friends.

He walked slowly but steadily, only turning from his course where he had to, and staying at all times alert for any sound. He wandered aimlessly, lost in thought, trying to guess what would happen to him, and what had happened to the others already.

Out of nowhere, Korimo appeared in front of him, wearing an expression of satisfaction.

"Well hello, Bakura. Fancy meeting you here."

Bakura didn't say anything, being unable to come up with a good response.

"My, you ARE a quiet one, aren't you? Very well, I've had my fill of banter anyway." She paused, waiting for an answer that wouldn't come. She sighed. "Well if you won't talk, let's just move on." Korimo snapped her fingers and the hall dissolved around them. Another stone room materialized, roughly the size of the gymnasium in Domino High. Three of the walls were smooth rock, while the fourth was akin to a craggy mountain face. Above this wall was what appeared to be the only exit. Ryou gasped slightly- the sight of the hall transforming was incredible.

"Are you impressed, Bakura dear?" Korimo asked sweetly. "I'm surprised, I thought you had an idea of my power by now." She spoke civilly, for once with only a faint trace of sarcasm. From what she had learned, she was able to guess that Ryou wasn't easily provoked, even if he could be intimidated. And while intimidation was fun, it just wasn't what Korimo had in mind.

"What do I have to do?" Ryou asked softly.

"Oh, so you do talk," Korimo said, circling around him like a lioness, ready to strike her prey. "You have a very straightforward challenge. You have to climb up that wall-"she gestured to the mountain-like wall to her left- "Within ten minutes. I shall be waiting for you at the top."

"I can do that."

"Don't be so sure." Korimo grinned and vanished, appearing again at the top of the wall, by the way out. "The only way to leave this room is by this door, or by my magic. And trust me, you want the former."

"I don't trust you," Bakura said. "But I do believe you."

"That makes you a very smart boy." Korimo grinned again. "You have ten minutes. Begin."

Ryou ran to the wall and immediately began to climb, allowing himself a faint hope. Even if he didn't look it, he'd always been okay at physical stunts. He had expected something much harder.

By the time four minutes had passed, Ryou was already half way up the wall. Korimo looked on with her mouth open in surprise, and her eyes glinting in fury.

"Damn, I must have been wrong about you." The sickly sweet tone was gone from her voice; she spoke low, loud, and livid. "Well let's see how well you do NOW!" She pounded the straight wall next to her with her fist, and the chunks of stone Ryou was holding onto fell off the wall. Ryou cried out and began to fall backward. He was able to hang onto a piece of the rock that jutted out, and only lost a few inches of his climb, but now several more rocks were falling down on top of him.

"You still have six minutes, Bakura." Korimo let a sinister laugh spill from her throat, but she wasn't smiling. For the first time, Korimo had found a flaw in her own plan.

Ryou looked up nervously, then pressed on ahead. "It's just a question of timing," he thought. "If I time it right, I'll be fine." He watched carefully, dodging the falling stones and gripping the ones that seemed least likely to fall. Aside from one misjudgment – a rock fell when he didn't expect it to and smashed into his right leg – Ryou was able to continue his challenge with ease.

"NO!" Korimo shouted. "You are NOT supposed to win!"

By now, Ryou was nearly at the top, with 45 seconds to go. He didn't even listen to her, keeping his eyes on the top of the cliff and smiling through his panting breaths.

"I'M THE ONE WHO'S GOING TO WIN!" Korimo shouted. When Ryou ignored her again, she snarled and closed her eyes. She muttered the spell under her breath, and when she opened her eyes, a wave of red light surrounded Ryou – freezing him with his hand just about to touch the top. "There, that's much better." The calm sweetness began to creep back into her voice. "Now all we have to do is wait for time to run out" Korimo laughed shakily, leaving it at a cross between happy and evil.

The triumphant light in Ryou's eyes had vanished in an instant. He tried to move a few times, but finding that it did nothing, he didn't waste his energy in a futile battle.

"Threeâtwoâone. Goodbye, Bakura dear. You played well, but I shall be the victor in the end." And with her smirk, Korimo sent Ryou off to join his friends.


	14. The End of the Beginning! Yugi's going d...

Yami, like all of his friends, wandered the endless maze of halls without any clear idea of where he was going. Unlike the others, he was not alone in his wanderings. Though with Yugi as company, he may have wished he had been.

"Do you think the others are okay? Do you think she's gotten them yet? She wouldn't...she wouldn't hurt them already, would she? What if-"

"Yugi, they're fine. It's been quite a while, so I'm sure she's gotten some of them. She wouldn't hurt them yet. Before we worry about them, we should think about our own challenge."

Before Yugi could begin to worry again, the horribly familiar, mocking voice rang through the hall. "Well, Yami is it?" he looked up to see Korimo sitting contentedly on top of a doorway in front of him. "It must be you I've been looking for all this time. The infamous King of Games."

"That would be me," Yami replied, with the faintest trace of a smirk on his face. Flattery shouldn't work on one so wise, but he couldn't help being proud of himself.

"Well I'm quite interested to know what you've done with Yugi Moto, then. I designed my little game around him, and it's him I plan to play against."

"I shall be your opponent, not Yugi," he said with great authority.

"I'm afraid that's not for you to decide. I intend on fighting Yugi at the moment, and you will comply with my intentions if you do not wish your friends harm," Korimo responded with equal authority.

/_But I'm not good at fighting, _Yugi said, /_if I try this, I might lose.../_

_I think we'll have to risk it, Yugi. You'd better come out. We don't have a choice _

In a brilliant flash of light, Hikari and Yami switched and Yugi stood facing Korimo with all the defiance he could muster evident in his eyes.

"Very good. Now Yugi, if you'll follow me." It was an order, not a request. Korimo jumped lightly from the doorway and opened the door she'd been on top of. She held it open with mock cordiality and gestured for Yugi to go in before her. He walked sideways into the room, quite literally unwilling to turn his back on his opponent. Korimo raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him, followed Yugi inside, and closed the door behind her.

"No doubt you're wondering what you are required to do," Korimo's voice came from the dark – the room was windowless and only a thin trickle of light seeped in from the hallway.

"Yeah," Yugi said nervously.

_don't worry, Yugi. I'll help you _A reminder of aid from his wiser half gave Yugi the confidence he needed.

"So what is it?" he asked.

"Tell me Yugi, what is this exquisite item around your neck?" The heavy chain tightened around the back of his neck and the weight of the Puzzle lifted away from his chest – Korimo had lifted the Puzzle up to examine it. Yugi stepped backwards and took the chain in his hand, pulling it away from her grasp.

"It's mine."

"Of course it is, that's quite obvious. But what is it?" She traced the Egyptian eye gracing the gold. The Puzzle shimmered in the little light there was, drawing her eye.

"It's my Mil-"

_Yugi, be careful. We have to keep the Puzzle with us at all times._

"It's just something my Grandpa gave me. Just a puzzle."

"I see. And the chain is so it doesn't get lost?" There was a mocking note in the question. "Very well, you won't tell me. But it's fitting, of course. Your task is-"She snapped her fingers and a bright blue ball of light fixed itself onto the ceiling above a small table, with a box sitting closed on top "- to solve this puzzle. You have 30 minutes, so I suggest you start now."

Yugi sat down at the small chair and took the lid off the box, not even thinking to distrust his luck. A standard jigsaw puzzle awaited him, and Yugi eagerly set to work.

Two Hundred pieces in half an hour was a daunting task, but Yugi settled into his stride quickly. Placing straight-edged pieces around the edge, he had the frame of the picture assembled in only a few minutes. Focusing only on the picture beginning to come together, Yugi ignored Korimo, who was pacing the floor around his table.

Fifteen minutes passed. The puzzle was already just over half completed. Korimo looked darkly down at the table, and suddenly began to laugh. Yugi looked up, startled. Her laughter was dark and calm, not at all what he wanted to hear. She stopped as suddenly as she had begun.

"Please, go on." She sniggered again, and walked to the wall, hiding herself in the shadows. Yugi blinked and, not knowing quite why, shivered before going back to the jigsaw.

Another ten minutes went by with no incident. With five minutes to go, Yugi had only to complete the center of the puzzle. He grinned as he worked, not taking the clues surrounding him: the simplicity of his task, the ease with which he went about it, and the sinister giggles still issuing from the shadows. But while Yugi couldn't pick up on the hints, Yami felt distinctly uneasy.

_Yugi, something isn't right. This is too easy _But the boy was engrossed in his task and wouldn't listen. He stopped for just a moment to count—10 pieces left to find homes for.

He could see the picture now: a large crowd made of several hundred people. About as hard a puzzle as could be found. But as piece after piece fell into place, Yugi couldn't help thinking that he would win easily.

Three minutes, two pieces. Korimo began to laugh even harder, but Yugi remained undaunted. The piece he was holding slipped perfectly into position, and he paused for a taunt, the way he and Yami always did.

"It looks like I've about beaten your game! Now you'll have to let all of us go!"

Korimo smirked. "Don't be so sure of yourself, Yugi. First, you should actually finish your task before you gloat about it. And second, I don't _have_ to do anything. But go on, finish up." Her violet eyes glittered in the half-light, and her laugh rang out across the room again.

Yugi picked up the final piece resolutely and placed it in the hole in the middle of the puzzle. But the hole wasn't filled.

"What? There's a piece missing!"

"Oh, is there?" Korimo stepped back into the dim blue light and peered over Yugi's shoulder. "Guess there is. One minute to go, Yugi."

"But this isn't fair! I know I took every piece out of the box! It's not there!"

"Oh, I certainly agree," Korimo grinned. "That would be why I told you not to gloat. You should have known you wouldn't beat me so easily. Thirty seconds."

Yugi stared at the puzzle in shock. His brain seemed to shut off; he couldn't think of a thing to do. It was all up to him to save his friends, and he had lost. He just stared at the oddly-shaped hole separating him from his win.

"Three...two...one. Dear dear, time's up. I'm afraid you'll have to go, Yugi. But don't worry, You'll rejoin your friends in a moment. They've already lost as well." She paused, savoring the look of fury on Yugi's face. With a snap of her fingers, She sent a wave of white light, blinding in the dark room, to where Yugi still sat. The boy stood up in surprise and fear as he was surrounded by the light.

"And don't worry, we shall face each other soon, King of Games." Yugi disappeared, and Fukamito the bat fluttered out of the dark corner from which he had been watching.

"That's all of them, then. Pity they weren't much of a challenge," Korimo said.

"Milady, there is something I do not understand."

"I expect there are a lot of things you don't understand," she replied lightly, "But go ahead and ask."

"What was Yugi's test? Anyone would have lost, so what did it have to do with him?"

Korimo smiled. "It's quite simple. Yugi trusted me to play fair. Had he not been so foolish, he would have found his missing piece." Korimo reached a thin hand into her pocket, pulling out the final puzzle piece. She pressed it into its spot beside all the others. "So they've been re-united now. Each and every one a loss."

"Shall we take care of them now, Milady?"

Korimo yawned. "Don't be stupid. It's only an hour or so till sunrise. Tomorrow night."

"But Milady-"

"But nothing, Fukamito."

"But the new moon-"

"Isn't until the night after next. Do you think I can't handle them in one night?" Korimo's voice was cold and dangerous.

"No Milady, of course not, but-"

"Then stop being an idiot and leave me alone. I'll need to rest today." Korimo walked out of the room, holding up a hand to shield her face from the bright light of the hallway.

----------

Yugi re-appeared on the floor next to his friends. It took a moment for them to realize that he was there. But after a few seconds, he was knocked over by the combined hugs of Tea, Joey and Serenity.

"Yugi! You're alright!" Tea cried

"We were so worried!" said Serenity

"So she got you, too?" Yugi looked up to see Duke still sitting in the corner. "That means no one's left."

"Don't talk that way, Duke! Now that Yugi's here, I know we'll be okay!"

"Tea, we all lost. We're all prisoners. There's no hope."

"There's always hope," Yugi said. "And we're all together now. Nothing can stop us!"

"Oh right! Yugi, look at this." Serenity handed the flashlight and a page of Korimo's diary to Yugi, who read it over quickly.

"See that Yuge?" asked Joey. "We gotta fight her durin' the day ta win."

"She's too smart for that," Duke put in. "There's no way we'll be able to get out of here in the daytime."

"New Moon then! That'll work."

"It's two days away."

"Stop fighting, you two!" Tea pleaded. "We'll never get out of this if we can't work together!"

"Tea's right," Yugi said, having read the page several times by now. "But Duke has a point. We'll have to stall until the New Moon. We just have to figure out how."

"If I may," Ryou interrupted, looking at his watch. "It's about four o'clock in the morning. If we're going to be in any shape to resist tomorrow, we should get some sleep while it's still dark."

"Good point," Tea said after a short pause.

"Yeah, we can work it out in the morning," Tristan agreed. Yugi yawned, and dropped off almost instantly. They all found a small space in their small, cell-like room, and one by one they fell asleep.


	15. Interlude: a new plan and a rival down!

Very late the next morning, Yugi-tachi woke within a few minutes of each other. They sat for a long time, conserving energy and simply having nothing to say. Ryou had found a deck of playing cards in his bag, and he, Tristan, Joey and Duke sat on one side of the room playing poker, while Tea and Serenity watched, munching on the food that they had brought. Yugi sat by himself against the opposite wall, with Korimo's diary in his hand and his focus everywhere. He couldn't stop thinking about all sorts of things. All he could do was watch his friends having fun, and wonder whether they'd ever have the chance to again.

Around noon by Ryou's watch, Fukamito strolled by the barred door to their room as a leopard. The quiet, calm atmosphere instantly changed—the air was alert and silence was absolute. Yugi looked over at Duke, who seemed to be remembering the same thing he was.

: We need to get rid of that thing. Betcha Korimo won't be so cocky without her little pet. :

It was Fukamito who broke the silence. "So Lady Korimo was right. You've all lost." His muzzle twitched into a smirk. "Which means we have won, and you won't last the night. At least you'll get to die together."

"Says you!" Joey yelled. "You ain't won yet!"

"Oh? I thought being a prisoner would be a good clue that you were not in control.

"That may be, but where there's life, there's hope," Yugi said quietly.

"I've heard." Fukamito replied. "But where you are, there's not much." He turned to leave.

"Wait!" Tea called. Fukamito turned back to look at her, as did everyone else. "You can't just leave Serenity and me here." She turned around quickly and gave Serenity a small wink, then turned back.

"And why not?" he asked, a note of amusement in his deep voice.

"You can't guess?" Serenity asked boldly, catching onto Tea's plan. "We need to...er...freshen up."

"Too bad for you." Fukamito started to walk away again, but Tea stopped him.

"Please, your master would have to understand. It's a girl thing." Joey suddenly looked at his sister with a disgusted look on his face, having understood what they were getting at. "Just a few minutes," Tea added.

Fukamito's dark eyes settled on Tea's face. After a moment, he muttered, "Humans..." and stepped up to the door. Becoming a monkey, he raised his hands into several complicated gestures and the door opened.

"NOW!" Tea yelled, and Ryou ran forward with his backpack, diving on the monkey and managing to capture it. The door closed by itself, cutting off escape options by the gang, but also limiting Fukamito to the room.

Fukamito began to panic. He became a tiger again, ripping the bag to shreds. Serenity shrieked, but Fukamito didn't stay so large for very long. As a tiger, he was too big to go through the bars in the door. He turned into a bat to fly away, but Tea reached out quickly and pinned him to the wall. He struggled, changing rapidly from one animal to another, but Tea's grip held. Yugi stood up, surprised and a little frightened to see the look of hatred in Tea's eyes and the pain on Fukamito's face.

"Tea...Tea, stop. Tea, you're hurting him!"

Tea's eyes widened, and things stood still for a moment. Then slowly, she loosened her grip, but kept the demon captive against the wall.

"Tell me, Fukamito, are you always this stupid, or is it only when I'm watching?" They all turned around to see Korimo standing in front of the door, arms folded across her chest.

"Milady, help, they-"

"I know what they did, idiot. They tricked you into opening the door and captured you. Honestly, haven't I taught you anything?"

"But Milady...won't you help me?" He was a crow again, and his dark eyes were wide.

"Surely you know me better than that. Who knows what you might have told them? Why, they may already know my greatest weaknesses."

"Milady, of course not, I didn't tell them anything-"

"Stop your pathetic whining." Korimo paused, then chuckled. "I have no need of a servant who cannot keep my secrets. Prove that you do not fall into this category."

"Milady, I don't understand-"

"Tell them. I order you to tell them my weakness." Korimo smirked, and all attention was on Fukamito. Tea finally released him, and he flew quickly to Korimo's feet.

"Milady..."

"Tell them! Go on."

"I won't!" he cried. "Lady Korimo, I swore loyalty to you! I will not betray your secrets! We will be victorious!"

"I see," Korimo said. "Very good. I did not know you were so trustworthy, Fukamito. You must have become weak over the last two years." Fukamito looked up at his master with fear. "But it doesn't matter now. You've disobeyed me, Fukamito." She looked down at him coldly. "You disobeyed a direct order. I believe that counts as betrayal."

"No! Milady, I was only-"

"It doesn't matter, Fukamito. Goodbye." Korimo turned her head to look at her captives. "Stay back, if you don't want to get hurt."

Serenity began to step forward, but Joey held her back. "Joey, what's going on?"

"I dunno, sis."

Fukamito kept trying to appeal to Korimo, but she simply stepped back when he tried to move towards her. Before long, his entire frame glowed brightly, and he was lifted off the ground. A single feather plucked itself from his back, and it burst into flame. Yugi-tachi gasped as one as each feather followed suit.

Fukamito tried to hold it back, but before long the air was filled with his screams. Serenity turned away, burying her face in Joey's shirt. Tea watched transfixed, a look of appalled horror on her face. And quite suddenly, he wasn't there anymore. The air still rang with his cry, but he had vanished. There was a long pause, then Tea fell to her knees, beginning to cry.

"What did you do to him!?" She sobbed. "Why?"

"I thought you hated him, Tea," Korimo said calmly. "He was your captor while I was busy preparing this little treat for all your friends." She stopped to smirk in triumph. "I'd thought you'd enjoy seeing his death."

"No...no...but why?" Tea asked again.

Korimo shrugged. "It was out of my control. Fukamito knew what he was doing."

"You killed him for doing what you'd trained him to!" Yugi yelled from the ground where he was trying to comfort Tea.

"Fine, if all you're going to do is yell, there's no point in my staying. I'll see you all tonight." She grinned, and walked away.

--------

Korimo walked through the hallways only slightly disturbed by Fukamito's death.

"He was a decent servant, after all," she said to herself. "Quite useful, when it came down to it. Pity." She continued on to the room she'd set up as hers, to prepare for the night.

-----------

Hours later, when the sun was about to set, Yugi-tachi finally decided to discuss their situation.

"We don't have much of a chance," Duke said. "It's not like we can go anywhere."

"We can unlock the door and escape," said Yami, who had switched with Yugi in order to plan.

"But where would we go?" asked Tristan. "The whole place is hers, who knows what kinda wacky magic stuff we'd run into?"

"But remember her diary. If we can keep her from catching us by morning, we'll be safe. Or at least, safer," Yami reasoned.

"He did say we'd die together..." Tea said sadly.

"Knowing what we know of Korimo, I'd say she has something big planned for us. She won't go through with it without all of us there."

"So we should split up and hide?" Joey asked indignantly. "Joey Wheeler doesn't run from anyone!"

"But Joey, we'll fight her tomorrow night, when we have an advantage," Serenity reminded him.

"Right, Serenity." Yami smiled. "We'll catch her off-guard, but we have to make sure she doesn't catch us first."

"Alright, alright. But I'm-"

"You're not going anywhere with Serenity again, Joey," Tea interrupted. "Remember where that got you two last time?"

"I'll take care of Serenity," Duke volunteered, grabbing Serenity's hand. Tristan glared at him.

"Tristan, you and Joey should go together," Yami suggested. "You've always been good at watching out for each other."

Tristan and Joey agreed, though Tristan still wasn't too happy about Duke and Serenity. Before long, it was decided that Ryou would hide with Tea, and Yami would go off on his own.

"Okay everyone, just keep out of sight. We'll meet back here at sunrise, that'll be around seven tomorrow morning," Yami said.

"And be careful everyone," Ryou urged.

"We will, Bakura."

"Yeah, we'll all get outta this just fine!"

"Right. Then let's go."

Just as the sun slipped below the horizon, with the power of the Millennium Puzzle, the door was unlocked, and once again the friends went their separate ways.


	16. The ticking of the clock part 1

hey everyone! long time no see ;; i'm afraid i got kinda sidetracked with everything else i've been writing (and new characters and ideas coming every minute...) but i promise i'm gonna keep up with this one. This section has a few more chapters in it, but i'll try not to drag it out too long. After this is the big final thing, so it won't be all that long before this is done. Keep on reading, and review!

oh, and my timing is horrible on this section -.-;;;; i have no sense of how long a night lasts. so forgive me

0-0-0-0-0

Korimo had a fine taste for the opulent and expensive. One particular item in the old mansion had caught her interest; an exquisite old grandfather clock. It was now displayed prominently in the very center of the house, where it could be heard from all over. It was this clock that helped Yami-tachi the most. With each chime, they were one step closer to being safe.

The clock struck 8. The sun went down. Korimo walked confidently to Yugi-tachi's cell.

"Well," she said as she walked, wanting to alert them of her presence, "I hope you've had a good day. It will be your last one, I assure –"

Korimo stepped up to the door of the cell and found it empty. She gasped.

"What!? But they couldn't have…only Fukamito and I can open that door!" With an angry flash of purple light, the door slammed open. Korimo stomped inside. All the bags and supplies were still in the cell.

"They were stupid enough to leave these behind…" Korimo muttered. She picked up Yugi's bag and dumped the contents onto the floor. It was almost empty; the only things inside were a flashlight, a pocket knife…

And Korimo's old diary.

"Now what's this?" Korimo picked up the papers up and found herself reading words she'd written years ago, words she'd foolishly kept.

"…Sensei told me before that dark power comes from the moon, but I've had to find the rest out on my own. She didn't want me to know, I expect. My new powers are strongest under the full moon, even during the daytime, when I'd otherwise be weaker. Likewise, the new moon drains my power, and I'm as weak under the stars as I am under the sun. I'll have to remember this, I wouldn't want to make a stupid mistake and mis-time an attack…"

"No…where- damn, of course. Trust Fukamito to lead the captives into the wrong room!" Korimo fumed. "Damn, they know. Fukamito was right after all…good thing he's not here to point it out."

Korimo paced around the small cell, then out into the hallway.

"New Moon is only a day away…They're hiding, of course. Now that they know…They're not complete idiots. But I'll find them. I know their kind. If I hold onto just one of them, I'll get my fight with the King of Games…"

0-0-0-0

Ryou and Tea were close to the top of the house by the time the clock struck 8.

"This way," Tea said, pulling on Ryou's arm and dragging him into a room. She walked softly to the air vent and listened with her head on the floor. " I hear footsteps, but they're way far away."

"Then we should be safe here for a little while?" Ryou asked, sitting on the floor.

"Yeah, think so." Tea replied, sitting next to him and stretching her legs out. "But we shouldn't stay here for too long."

"Right," Ryou agreed.

Tea sighed. "I wish we hadn't left everything back there, I don't even have a watch on!"

"But there's a clock somewhere around here, I heard it a few minutes ago."

"Really? Please tell me you know what time it is."

"About 5 minutes ago, it was 8 o'clock." Ryou let his head fall back and looked up, out the small window in the room. "But the sun's just barely set. It'll be a long time till morning."

Tea yawned, stretching out again. "Wake me when you hear that clock again, in that case. I'm going to sleep."

"But Tea—" Ryou started to protest (after all, he was tired, too) but Tea, who had barely slept the night before, was already dreaming. Ryou sighed and looked back out the window.

0-0-0-0-0

The clock struck 9.

"Quick! This way!" Duke whispered, pulling Serenity along a hallway.

"What's up, Duke?" Serenity asked. "What happened?"

"She's on this floor, I heard footsteps."

"Maybe it's one of the others, though."

"Can't take the chance," Duke said, panting from running. "Either way…gotta stay split up."

"Oh…" Serenity looked behind her, then turned her head back around and started to run faster. Duke could only watch open-mouthed as he fell further and further behind Serenity.

"Track team," She said before he even asked. "Whaa!" Serenity skidded to a stop just before hitting a dead end at the end of the hall. Duke ran right past her, and into the wall, crashing loudly.

Serenity winced, and listened. There were indeed footsteps behind them, footsteps that had quickened after hearing that crash.

"Duke! What now?" Serenity asked. "If that is her, she's right behind us!"

"Duke looked around. The hall was straight for a little while, with a sharp turn before whoever was following them could see them. On one side of the hall was solid wall—no escape there. On the other side, however, was a railing before a long jump down. Duke stood quickly and looked down. The footsteps came closer and closer. There was a soft-looking chair at the bottom of the drop, but it was so far away that aiming for it was near impossible.

Still, it was their only chance.

"Serenity, trust me on this. We gotta jump."

"What!? But—"

"I said trust me! There's a chair or something a few floors down from us, try to land there!" Duke almost picked Serenity up off the floor completely, but she grabbed onto the rail and jumped down. She fell fast, hair streaming out behind her. Duke watched nervously as she fell. The footsteps came ever closer.

Serenity somehow managed to land on the chair, but cried out as she hit it.

"SERENITY!" Duke yelled, then jumped after her as the footsteps sped up again. Duke didn't have such a good landing—he hit a large, decorative rug next to the chair.

By the time Korimo got to the dead end, they were hiding again three floors below.

0-0-0-0-0

The clock struck 10.

Korimo had been wandering fruitlessly for an hour, since Serenity and Duke had slipped from her grasp. She cursed to herself as she walked, going through deserted hallway after deserted hallway. There was nothing more she could do.

Korimo cursed again at her foolishness.

"I should have left Fukamito alive," she muttered. "Useless as he may otherwise be, I should never have lost such a good spy." Had Fukamito been there, Korimo would have sent him out to scour the house as well, giving her two pairs of eyes and a handy set of teeth and claws.

Korimo came to the entrance hall, where there was a large space. Rather than walk, Korimo concentrated for a few seconds on a levitation spell and floated around the hall.

"They know my power will be weak tomorrow, but I'm just as strong as ever tonight. They'll be sorry, they'll WISH they'd gone along with my plan…" Korimo floated off down yet another hall, still muttering.

0-0-0-0-0

The clock struck 11.

Yami slowly and quietly walked along the halls of the uppermost floor. As usual, Yugi chattered in his ear the entire time.

"Do you know what time it is? Where do you think everyone else is? Do you think they're okay? What if they're caught! What are we gonna do tomorrow if we all get out? What if we don't!"

"Yugi, don't worry," Yami said, attempting to reassure his agitated light. "I'm sure the others are fine. But we have to make sure that we'll be alright, too. So be quiet and help me look out for a place to hide."

Yugi was a little bit taken aback; his Yami almost never scolded or asked anything of him, especially when he was worried.

"Yami, something wrong?"

"No Yugi, don't worry…"

"Come on, I can tell."

"Yugi please, now's not the time-"

A translucent Yugi leapt onto Yami's back and began tugging on his hair. "Come on, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me…"

Yami sighed and shook Yugi off. "I'm just worried, that's all."

"About the others?"

"Well yes, but there's something else…" Yami turned out of the hall and into what looked like a library. He sat on a large armchair by an empty fireplace. "We still don't know how Korimo's power works. We don't know just how strong she is tonight, or will be tomorrow."

"But the Puzzle has always had enough power to drive anything off," Yugi pointed out. "I'm sure it's more than enough to hold her off."

"I hope so, Yugi," Yami looked around at the window, where the sliver of a moon hung high above the surrounding woods. "I hope so."


	17. The Ticking of the Clock part 2

"Tristan, come on!"

"Joey, shut up! Ya wanna get caught!"

"No, so come 'ere!" Joey pulled his friend into a thickly carpeted room, where their hurried footsteps made little to no sound. The only sound they could hear now was the distant chime of the clock—Midnight.

Tristan shook his arm free. "Man, she was right behind us! If she comes in here we're dead."

Joey was already building kind of a fort out of the pillows, blankets and dusty furniture in what had obviously been an old bedroom. "Not if she don't see us." He stepped back from his fort. "It may not look like much, but we'll be covered."

"You're just lucky the stuff in here was so messed up anyway…"

The sound of footsteps coming nearer caught both of their attention.

"Quick, in here!" Joey whispered, pushing Tristan into a pile of blankets in the corner. He then dove behind an old dresser under the thick comforter that had once been on the bed.

The door opened slowly, and Korimo's black head poked in.

"I know you're in here…" she said softly. "You know I'll find you…why don't you just come out now? There's nowhere to hide!" She shot a ball of bright, white light from her hand, which flittered around the room, lighting up every corner before returning to her and going out. Joey and Tristan held their breaths as the light passed over their heads, but the blankets were thick enough to hide them. "Damn…" Korimo started to curse beneath her breath, and left the room, leaving the door open behind her.

Once the sound of her sandals had faded away, Tristan burst out of a veritable quicksand of blankets and gasped for air. Joey got up with difficulty (the comforter was very thick and soft) and closed the door.

"Whew, that was a close one."

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Tristan brushed dust off of his shirt. "What now?"

"Think she'll come back in here?"

"Probably not for a while."

"Then we can stay, can't we?" Joey also brushed himself down. I'm takin' a nap, wake me if ya need to.

"Hey, I'm tired…too." Tristan hung his head in defeat; Joey was already snoring.

0-0-0-0-0

The clock struck one.

Korimo kept wandering the same halls, following whatever leads she could find. Not that there were all that many. Korimo jerked her head angrily, throwing her hair behind her. She'd underestimated them. And overestimated Fukamito, of course. And now the whole plan was crumbling around her.

She could hear footsteps up ahead. Not exactly close by, by the sound of things, but not so far that she couldn't take another hostage. She sped up.

_I know their kind,_ she kept repeating to herself. _They won't leave one of their own here. All I need is one…_

She turned a corner, finding herself in yet another dead-end hallway. There was only one door to check. A grin spread itself across Korimo's face.

"Don't be shy now, I won't hurt you. Yet." She threw the door open.

It was a guest bedroom. The dust on the furniture and mirrors was almost twice as thick as in the rest of the house. Never been used. There was even dust coating the carpet, with no footprints. No one had so much as opened the door to this room in years.

Furious, Korimo allowed herself a shriek of anger. Alone, being outwitted by fools, without a servant and now hearing things. Even she was beginning to doubt her chances.

0-0-0-0-0

Duke and Serenity stopped right in front of the clock when it stuck two. Serenity actually jumped at the noise.

"Serenity? What's wrong?"

"Nothing Duke," Serenity took her hands away from her ears as the chimes faded away into nothing. "I just haven't heard anything so loud all night."

Duke stood hunched over, hands on his knees, catching his breath. "Well, last clue we had she was like a mile above us, so I think it's okay to stop here for a bit."

Serenity found a tall, regal-looking armchair pushed against the wall and gratefully sank into it. "Where are we, Duke? D'you think we'll be able to find our way back?"

"I don't know," Duke said honestly, sitting on the floor next to her chair. "We did take a lot of turns. Not to mention that jump…" he rubbed his shoulder, stretching it out. "I dunno if my arm's gonna forgive me for that one."

"Oh! Duke, why didn't you say something before?" Serenity slid out of the chair and inspected his arm.

"Would have slowed us down. It's fine now, don't wo-OW! Worry." Duke flinched as Serenity poked the sore shoulder.

"Oh, this is bad…I should have brought the first-aid kit…"

Duke's head snapped up at the sound of someone walking almost directly above him. He stood quickly, pulling Serenity up with him. "No time now. Don't worry about it, let's just get out of here."

Serenity nodded, though she was still visibly upset. "Right…"

They took off down the hall, taking every staircase they saw leading down.

"Duke," Serenity said through panting breaths, "What if…that was one…of the others?"

Duke was panting much more heavily, but managed to choke out an answer. "If it….was…then we're…okay. But…if it was….her…couldn't risk it."

"Oh…." They reached the bottom of a staircase, and Serenity stopped, sitting on the bottom step. "Duke, I don't like this! I don't like it at all! What if they needed help?"

Duke sat next to her, placing a comforting arm around her shoulder. "It's alright, Serenity. It'll all be over soon."

0-0-0-0-0

Ryou and Tea had gotten along very well through the night, each alternately sleeping and keeping watch. But when Tea woke Ryou at the strike of three, they both heard a single pair of soft, angry footsteps coming close to them.

"It sounds like she's right above us!" Ryou whispered urgently.

"Then we gotta get out of here!" Tea grabbed his wrist and pulled him out the door. The two ran down their hallway until they found stairs going down.

"If all we do is go down, we'll get boxed in on the last floor," Ryou cautioned. More footsteps echoed along the corridor, coming closer.

"Well we'll go up again later! For now let's go!" Keeping her weight on the toes of her dancer's feet, Tea descended the staircase barely making any noise. Ryou, however, wasn't so well-trained. His sneakers thudded on every step, and the approaching footsteps sped up.

"Oh, she heard you…this way!" Tea again pulled Ryou behind her, taking a small side hall instead of the main one.

"Why are we going this way?" Ryou asked between breaths.

"Look at the floor there, some of the others have already been here." Tea indicated two pairs of footprints in the dust before they turned a corner, and the main hall went out of sight. "I bet they've been gone a while, but maybe she won't see ours."

Korimo's voice drifted through the corridors. "Now that's interesting…which way…" her footsteps faded away—she'd taken the main path.

Both Ryou and Tea breathed a sigh of relief.

"We should go back up, maybe a few floors," Ryou suggested. "We could just go the way we came, now."

"Right." Walking now, not running, they re-traced their steps to and past the room where they'd hidden. Wandering for a little while, they found another bedroom a few floors up.

"I think this room's already been searched," Ryou commented rather unnecessarily. There were blankets and pillows in a heap in one corner, and footprints all over the dusty carpet. "I think it's safe to rest here a while."

"Good, I could use a nap," Tea yawned. "First thing I do when I get home is sleep through the night. That'd be nice." And with nothing more than that, Tea fell asleep on the pile of blankets, again leaving a dejected Ryou to keep watch.


End file.
